An employee of Chuck E. Cheese, wearing the famous mouse costume, was apprehended for using a stolen credit card at one of the chain’s Florida locations, as reported by the police.
“Chuck E, come with me Chuck E,” a police officer in Tallahassee told the suspect, “stop resisting, you are being detained.”
The arrest transpired on Wednesday, according to a police report, and eyewitness photos captured an officer taking off the man’s mask—which featured gray fur, oversized ears, and a constant grin—and placing it on top of a police vehicle in Tallahassee.
The investigation kicked off when a woman contacted the authorities, claiming that her child support Visa debit card was being used without her consent. She realized the card had been missing since she visited Chuck E. Cheese in late June, with unauthorized charges appearing at a smoke shop, a grocery store, and Whataburger.
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.
