Imagine Getting Handcuffed and Arrested While Still Wearing Your Chuck E. Cheese Costume

There has always been something a little bit off about Chuck E. Cheese, formerly Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza and before that, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre. If you're old enough to remember going there in the 1980s, it was a truly magical place where kids could play arcade games, lose themselves in the hopefully clean ball pit, or take in a show by the animatronic entertainers.

In retrospect, the animatronic band led by Chuck E. Cheese himself was a bit unsettling. On the surface, Chuck E. Cheese was a beloved life-sized mouse bringing joy to the children dancing at his mechanical feet. In reality, he was a robot that probably came to life at night, à la Five Nights at Freddy's. Although the animatronic band is long gone, employees dressed as Chuck E. Cheese remain. Sometimes they even get arrested, which is uncomfortable in a different way. Read on for details.

A photo of a police officer arresting someone in a Chuck E. Cheese costume was shared on Facebook in July 2024. For obvious comical reasons, it immediately went viral. Coincidentally, the picture was uploaded by a man named Chuck Hobbs, who provided more information in the comments.

The suspect was arrested in Tallahassee, Fla. by Tallahassee Police Department. Chuck popped into the comments that he had it on good authority from a "very trusted source" of his at TDP who told him they "tried to handle it with discretion" but "ol' Chuck got buck and started resisting so they had to put on the cuffs."

The Chuck E. Cheese arrest photo was confirmed by the Tallahassee Police Department, which told the Tallahassee Democrat that Jermell Jones was arrested on three felonies. Alicia Hill, a spokesperson for the police, said police were called to the parking lot of a Chuck E. Cheese after a caller reported a stolen credit card.

The call was made on July 3, but the alleged incident occurred in June during a party at the popular pizza place. The woman who reported the theft said she noticed roughly "$100 of fraudulent charges on her card from places she didn’t shop at or hadn’t been to." After doing some research, the woman traced the activity back to a Chuck E. Cheese employee.

Police never intended to make the arrest while Jones was wearing his costume, but when police arrived at the Chuck E. Cheese, that's how he was dressed. "They walked over with the intention of just walking outside to put handcuffs on him outside of public view," Hill told the Democrat. "But when they approached him, he immediately tenses up and resists, and so at this point they make the decision to put him in handcuffs," explained Hill.

Officers found the credit card on Jones at the time of his arrest. "It is unfortunate that the person who is subject of this investigation and who we had probable cause on happened to be in a suit and in costume," lamented Hill. The Democrat reached out to Chuck E. Cheese's parent company, CEC Entertainment, for comment. They are aware of the incident and are taking the "appropriate action concerning the subject employee."