Police bodycam video shows the moment children and parents watched in shock as a Florida man dressed in a Chuck E. Cheese mascot costume was arrested.
The Tallahassee Police Department recently released bodycam video of the eye-opening July 23 arrest.
‘Would y’all put Mickey Mouse in handcuffs?’
Police bodycam footage shows officers marching into a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Tallahassee.
“We’re gonna detain the mouse,” an officer is heard telling a fellow cop on video as they enter the pizza restaurant geared toward kids.
Bodycam footage shows children playing arcade games as officers walk toward an individual dressed from head to toe as the Chuck E. Cheese mouse mascot.
“Chuck E.’s a little bit busy, ma’am,” an officer tells a woman.
The officer orders the person in the mouse costume, “Chuck E., come with me. Chuck E! Chuck E! Stop resisting! You’re being detained, stop resisting! Let it go! Do not cause a scene here, sir.”
The Chuck E. Cheese mascot is handcuffed and then escorted out of the children’s restaurant as parents and kids watch in disbelief.
As one of the officers exits the restaurant, a furious woman scolds the cop for arresting the mouse mascot in front of children at the restaurant.
“I would like y’all to walk him out the door instead of traumatizing all these children seeing someone like Chuck E. Cheese get arrested,” the woman is heard saying.
She then asks, “Would y’all put Mickey Mouse in handcuffs?”
Tallahassee Police Department spokesperson Alicia Hill previously told the Tallahassee Democrat that officers had planned to escort the Chuck E. Cheese mascot from the restaurant and handcuff him outside. But police said they became nervous after the suspect resisted.
Hill explained that when officers approached the individual in the Chuck E. Cheese mascot costume, the suspect “immediately tenses up and resists, and so at this point they make the decision to put him in handcuffs” for the safety of the suspect, customers, and officers.
Hill added that it was “unfortunate” that the suspect “happened to be in a suit and in costume.”
“The parents were not happy with us detaining Chuck E. Cheese,” one officer tells another cop in the clip.
The other cop responds, “Too bad.”
After police remove the costume head from the suspect’s head, exposing his face, officers attempt to search the handcuffed man for weapons. However, the suspect is still wearing the rest of the mouse costume, which makes it difficult to detect if the suspect has any weapons on him.
“I’m working, you know, I’m just doing my job,” the suspect tells cops. “What the f**k is this about?”
Police arrested 41-year-old Jermel Jones for allegedly purchasing items with someone else’s credit card.
Citing the probable cause affidavit, Fox News reported that a woman informed police that her debit card went missing June 28 and that she last recalled seeing her debit card at the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant for her child’s birthday party.
WKMG-TV reported that the woman said her debit card was used at a smoke shop, a grocery store, and a Whataburger fast-food restaurant without her knowledge or consent.
Police said officers found the stolen credit card in the suspect’s left front pocket. Jones reportedly told officers that he “never used” the debit card and denied any wrongdoing,
“Jones was also in possession of a small amount of marijuana,” the affidavit stated, according to Fox News. Jones allegedly told a police officer that he was “on the way” to getting a medical marijuana license.
According to WPEC-TV, Jones was charged with theft of a credit card, criminal use of personal identification information, and fraudulent use of a credit card totaling over $100.
Jones was released the next day on a $1,000 bond.
A Chuck E. Cheese spokesperson told People magazine, “We have taken the appropriate action concerning the subject employee.”
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