'Chuck E. Cheese' Handcuffed and Arrested in Florida, Charged with Using a Stolen Credit Card (nbcnews.com) 43
NBC News reports:
Customers watched in disbelief as Florida police arrested a Chuck E. Cheese employee — in costume portraying the pizza-hawking rodent — and accused him of using a stolen credit card, officials said Thursday.... "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.
After a child's birthday party in June at Chuck E. Cheese, the child's mother had "spotted fraudulent charges at stores she doesn't frequent," according to the article — and she recognized a Chuck E. Cheese employee when reviewing a store's security footage. But when a police officer interviewed the employee — and then briefly left the restaurant — they returned to discover that their suspect "was gone but a Chuck E. Cheese mascot was now in the restaurant."
Police officer Cruz "told the mascot not to make a scene before the officer and his partner 'exerted minor physical effort' to handcuff him, police said... " The officers read the mouse his Miranda warnings before he insisted he never stole anyone's credit, police said.... Officers found the victim's Visa card in [the costume-wearing employee's] left pocket and a receipt from a smoke shop where one of the fraudulent purchases was made, police said.
He was booked on charges of "suspicion of larceny, possession of another person's ID without consent and fraudulent use of a credit card two or more times," according to the article. He was released after posting a $6,500 bond.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader destinyland for sharing the news.
After a child's birthday party in June at Chuck E. Cheese, the child's mother had "spotted fraudulent charges at stores she doesn't frequent," according to the article — and she recognized a Chuck E. Cheese employee when reviewing a store's security footage. But when a police officer interviewed the employee — and then briefly left the restaurant — they returned to discover that their suspect "was gone but a Chuck E. Cheese mascot was now in the restaurant."
Police officer Cruz "told the mascot not to make a scene before the officer and his partner 'exerted minor physical effort' to handcuff him, police said... " The officers read the mouse his Miranda warnings before he insisted he never stole anyone's credit, police said.... Officers found the victim's Visa card in [the costume-wearing employee's] left pocket and a receipt from a smoke shop where one of the fraudulent purchases was made, police said.
He was booked on charges of "suspicion of larceny, possession of another person's ID without consent and fraudulent use of a credit card two or more times," according to the article. He was released after posting a $6,500 bond.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader destinyland for sharing the news.
About time they caught that rat (Score:5, Insightful)
I haven't been to a Chuck-E-Cheese since the 1980s, I'm joking with my subject. I've seen them, but terrible pizza, old video games, no reason to go in.
Re:About time they caught that rat (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of them are gone now anyway. Old video games, on the other hand, are a great reason to go.
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Re:About time they caught that rat (Score:4, Insightful)
Similar things happen in other places, but Florida has a "Sunshine Law" [wikipedia.org] that means these kinds of police reports are visible to the general public.
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Not just a sunshine law but also a large population, with more people there's just a greater chance of wild things to happen. Given any other population of 23 million or so people there would be plenty of wild stuff going on every year. Oh, and the mild weather helps, more people out and about to enjoy the weather and interact with each other.
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Florida? Try living in California. You'll see much weirder shit on a daily basis.
https://www.the-independent.co... [the-independent.com]
That's drinkypoo, by the way. Notice he's out already. That's California baby!
Re: About time they caught that rat (Score:1)
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Not at all. I've lived in California going on three years now. This place has just gone to shit.
Re: About time they caught that rat (Score:2)
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Are you kidding me? They games suck.
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Are you kidding me? They games suck.
I haven't been in a Pizza Time Theater since I went to a swgoths meet in San Antonio more than 20 years ago, one of the crew was working there. They had a pretty decent selection of games, and everything was in good working order.
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Yeah there was always something creepy about him...and the pizza.
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I haven't been to a Chuck-E-Cheese since the 1980s, I'm joking with my subject. I've seen them, but terrible pizza, old video games, no reason to go in.
It's not for you, it's for your kids. We've been to several birthday parties for the 4-7 age range there.
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That was never going to work because the whole point of the place was you could go there as a parent and get a few hours of Peace as your kids played on the jungle gym after they blew t
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The pizzas were made under less than sanitary conditions. The cheese came in this huge box and had to be split up into multiple bags to be refrigerated. Do you think teenage employees wipe down the tables in the kitchen before they start this task?
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A few years back, there was some manufactured "scandal", I think on Reddit, that claimed Chuck E. Cheese would "recycle" uneaten slices of pizza and would put them together to make a "new" Pizza and service it to guests. The observation was that the to
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. The cheese came pre-shredded and refrigerated (not frozen) but we never re-packaged or re-froze it.
Right. and they didn't fit on the shelf of our refrigerator.
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I worked there in high-school. We had these huge-ass rocking cutter knives that sliced through the whole pizza diameter. It was great at creating an even number of slices. I think 12 was the norm; 14 was doable, but harder to pull off. Some jackass asked for 13 slices once. I hope they enjoyed the 12 slices with one cut in half.
I will remain silent about everything else that happened there.
Preferred ShowBiz (Score:2)
Anyone old here remember before they rebranded it was ShowBiz and there was a whole music set of animated characters.
Re: Preferred ShowBiz (Score:2)
Re: Preferred ShowBiz (Score:4, Insightful)
You have it backwards. Chuck E Cheese was founded by Nolan Bushnell in 1977.
Robert Brock, a major Holiday Inn franchise operator, signed a deal to open 280 Chuck E Cheese franchises in 1979, but got cold feet when he saw other companies like CEI were producing more advanced animatronics and voided the deal. He founded ShowBiz Pizza around the end of 1979.
Chuck E Cheese declared bankruptcy in 1984, and was acquired by ShowBiz' parent company Brock Hotels in 1985, but both chains continued to operate separately.
ShowBiz had a falling out with animatronics supplier CEI at some point, but I'm not sure about the details. In 1989, after listing on the stock market, they severed ties with CEI and unified branding under the Chuck E Cheese name.
That's what the GP is referring to. They're saying ShowBiz was better when they still used CEI animatronics, before they rebranded as Chuck E Cheese.
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There was/is also also Bullwinkle's [wikipedia.org], three locations remain. None of them are the original, which I visited once as a tween. It was in Santa Clara.
We also had a Chuck E Cheese in Santa Cruz county, located in the Nob Hill shopping center in Capitola, CA. The arcade had a "haunted forest" theme and they had very current and expensive games at the time, like Dragon's Lair (with the second screen for spectators, even.) They had to have good games to compete with the main arcade at The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwal
He has a prescription! (Score:3)
Pizza-hawking rodent (Score:4, Funny)
"Never! I'm no rat!"
Appropriate employment (Score:2)
Sounds like this criminal genius couldn't get a job anywhere else
Could be worse... (Score:3)
Could be worse...it could have been the Noid after a delivery. :-) https://villains.fandom.com/wi... [fandom.com]
--JoshK.
And 1-billion-cheesy-jokes just wrote themselves (Score:1)
https://www.perplexity.ai/sear... [perplexity.ai]
For the youngins... (Score:2)
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That, and that they are or were also arcades, should be enough.
We have had numerous discussions about this franchise on Slashdot in the past.
"You dirty brother, you (Score:1)
stole my rat!"