It started as a normal Wednesday in Tallahassee, the city where dreams are made. The soda was flat, the pizza was stale, and the coin-operated games were ripping kids off left and right. Everything was okay in the Chuck E. Cheese world when, suddenly, the thin veneer of fun barely holding together Charles “Entertainment” Cheese’s palace of mediocre wonderment was shattered.
Children were crying, and parents were left confused at the sight of the chain’s beloved mascot being hauled away in cuffs and tossed into the back of a police cruiser.
Charles “Entertainment” Cheese was arrested after an unnamed woman realized her credit card had vanished, only to watch it rack up a series of sketchy charges at smoke shops, grocery stores, and a Whataburger.
Rather than call on the help of the local fuzz, who would only have halfheartedly scribbled a few notes before leaving her to wither on the vine as the charges stacked up on her card, she decided to do some independent sleuthing.
Chuck E. Cheese Mascot Arrested for Fraud in Florida
The woman paid a visit to one of the locations where the fraudulent charges occurred. She asked the proprietor if she could review the security camera footage; maybe she’d get lucky and catch a clear view of the fraudster. Lo and behold, there he was—the rat b*****d Chuck E. Cheese himself.
Well, not the pizza rat himself. He is, fortunately, fictional. She saw the guy who would later don the skin of Chuck, an employee of a local Chuck E. Cheese establishment she frequented. With a kid. Presumably her own, though this New York Times report doesn’t specify. She’s not a freak who hangs out at Chuck E. Cheese. One hopes.
If it wasn’t the Chuck E. Cheese, then who was this imposterous fraudster? 41-year-old Jermell Jones. Police questioned him at his workplace. After huddling up to confirm that he matched the description provided, they turned back to make the arrest, only to find that Jermell was gone. He had ducked out of sight and reemerged, clad head to toe in the costume of Chuck, walking out about to perform for the gathering children.
Before the entertainment rat could take the stage, the coppers grabbed him by the arm and whisked him away. “Chuck E.’s busy right now,” is an actual thing one of the parents overheard a cop say as they hauled away Chuck E. Cheese.
“Chuck E., come with me,” one officer reportedly said before grabbing his arm and slapping on the cuffs.
The cops found Jones in possession of the woman’s credit card. He’s been charged with three counts of credit card fraud. The officers hauled Chuck/Jemelle away as the kids looked on, horrified; their hero, the perp, walked out of the establishment as the animatronic band played on.
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