Police arrest Chuck E. Cheese mascot in front of kids for debit card theft in Tallahassee, Florida

Tallahassee, Florida — A Chuck E. Cheese’s mascot has been arrested in Florida after a customer ratted him out as an alleged thief, police said.

A worker dressed in a Chuck E. Cheese costume at one of the kid-friendly pizza chain’s franchises in Tallahassee, Florida, was taken into custody Wednesday night on larceny charges and hauled out of the restaurant in handcuffs as children looked on, according to police and images of the incident that emerged on social media.

The suspect, 41-year-old Jermel Jarreau Jones, of Tallahassee, was dressed head-to-toe in a Chuck E. Cheese costume when police confronted him around 7:30 p.m. local time at a Chuck E. Cheese in northwest Tallahassee, according to an arrest report from the Tallahassee Police Department.

“I grabbed his right arm while giving the verbal instruction, ‘Chuck E, come with me Chuck E,” Tallahassee police Officer Jarrett Cruz wrote in the report.

Cruz alleged that the man in the mascot costume initially resisted arrest.

“Jones immediately started tensing up, locking both of his arms forward in front of his chest and attempted to pull away from my grip on his right arm,” the officer wrote in the report. “I gave the verbal commands to ‘stop resisting, you are being detained.”

Cruz and a back-up officer reportedly asked the masked employee to “not make a scene,” according to the report.

The officers said they “exerted minor physical effort placing Jones’ arms behind his back,” according to the report.

Jones, still in full mouse garb, was placed in double-locked handcuffs and escorted out of the restaurant to a marked patrol vehicle, where police removed his oversize Chuck E. Cheese head and allegedly found in his pants pocket a debit card that was reported stolen from a customer during a June 28 child’s party at the restaurant, according to the report.

Jones was arrested on felony charges of larceny of a debit card, possession of another person’s identification without consent and for allegedly using the stolen debit card six times.

Police alleged that Jones racked up charges on the stolen debit card, including purchasing items at a smoke shop, a meat market and a Whataburger.

Jones could not be reached for comment. He denied stealing the card when questioned by police and claimed the card was in his pocket because he had just found it and was about to turn it in to lost and found, according to the police report.

“We are aware of an incident involving a part-time employee arrested at our Tallahassee location on Wednesday, July 23. We have taken the appropriate action concerning the subject employee. The police have not reached out to us about this; please contact the local Tallahassee police department for any questions,” a Chuck E. Cheese’s company spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.

The victim of the debit card theft reportedly did her own detective work to identify the culprit and helped police set a trap for him, according to the report.

The victim told police that when she began noticing the strange charges on her card, she went to a meat market where the card was used and obtain security video footage that captured the person using it.

“She immediately recognized the suspect as an employee of Chuck E. Cheese,” according to the police report.

The victim contacted police and met them at the Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant.

An officer entered the restaurant, confirmed Jones was there and noted that the suspect, “gazed at me with wide eyes and squared his shoulders in a tensed manner,” according to the police report.

The officer briefly left the restaurant to tell the victim that Jones was working there, and the victim told the officer she wished to press charges.

Cruz and another officer went back into the restaurant and questioned a female employee about Jones whereabouts in the business.

“I asked the employee where the gentleman was that was previously at the front gate post, and if he was the one in the mouse suit,” according to the report. “She shook her had up and down indicating yes.”