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An employee at a Chuck E. Cheese location in Florida was arrested after allegedly using a stolen credit card. The arrest was made public by police and involved the staff member wearing the mascot mask of Chuck E. Cheese, the beloved character from the children’s party venue.
“Chuck E, come with me Chuck E,” a police officer in Tallahassee told the suspect, “stop resisting, you are being detained.”
According to police records, the arrest took place on Wednesday. Pictures captured by onlookers depicted an officer taking off the oversized rodent mask — featuring gray fur and playful features — and placing it on top of a Tallahassee Police Department car.
The investigation started when a woman reported her child support Visa debit card missing after visiting Chuck E. Cheese in late June. Unauthorized charges from a smoke shop, grocery store, and Whataburger alerted her to the misuse.
The woman tracked down the suspect by going to the grocery store and viewing surveillance footage from the time her card was used, police records state. She recognized the man from the Chuck E. Cheese.
When police officers arrived at the restaurant, one of them entered first to verify that the suspect was there. He was — and he wasn’t wearing the mask. The suspect “looked very nervous, he gazed at me with wide eyes and squared shoulders in a tensed demeaner,” a police officer later wrote in the probable cause report.
The officer and another officer soon returned to the Chuck E. Cheese, where the suspect had since donned the rodent mask, police records stated. The officers asked another employee if the suspect was in the mouse suit.
“She shook her head up and down indicating yes,” the officer wrote.
