Credit: Tallahassee Police DepartmentThis week saw the release of body cam footage of one of the weirdest arrests you will ever see. As children were waiting for a photo with their favorite mascot, local police barged in and arrested the man inside the suit for allegedly stealing a patron’s credit card.
The incident happened at a Chuck-E-Cheese Restaurant/Birthday Hall in Tallahassee, Florida. Michelle Allen took her children there for an afternoon, but after she returned home, she found that her credit card had been fraudulently used at stores she did not frequent.
Allen obtained security footage from one of those stores and realized that the man using her credit card was a Chuck-E-Cheese employee. Allen alerted the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) and told them she wanted to press charges against the man.
When officers arrived at the restaurant, they were told by another employee that the man they were looking for, Jermel Jarreau Jones, 41, was in the Chuck-E-Cheese costume, taking photos with children.
The TPD officers approached Jones and asked the children to step away. However, officers claimed that Jones “tensed up and tried to resist,” so they cuffed him in front of the children.
On the body camera footage that was released this week, one mother could be heard telling the officers they had “traumatized” her children and asking, “Would ya’ll put Mickey Mouse in handcuffs?”
A TPD spokesperson told the Tallahassee Democrat that it was up to the “officer’s discretion” on who to arrest a suspect, and it was “unfortunate” that he happened to be the one in the suit. Jones was charged with three felonies, including theft of a credit card, criminal use of personal identification information, and fraudulent use of a credit card more than two times within six months.
Once they got Jones in the police car, one officer said that the parents “weren’t too happy with us,” to which the other officer replied, “too bad.”
The TPD has since made amends to the children at the Chuck-E-Cheese and the restaurant’s owner and staff by hosting an event at that location for those impacted by the arrest.
This one might be the wildest of all the things that have happened to costume actors while on the job.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen while taking your photo with a costumed actor? Let us know in the comments.