Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Chuck E. Cheese Got Arrested - The Jermell Jones Story

Episode Date: November 2, 2025

Jermell Jones is a 41-year-old Florida man who was arrested in July 2025 while working as the mascot for Chuck E. Cheese in Tallahassee. He was taken into custody in full costume during a children’s birthday party after surveillance linked him to using a woman’s child-support debit card to make fraudulent charges.

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Participating locations only. terms of jackson,newit.com slash 149. So, believe it or not, Chuckie Cheese is going to jail. Now, this story starts with this guy, Jermel. And Jermel is 41 years old, living in Florida. And bro, he's got a bit of a rap sheet. Like, he's always in trouble. He's been to jail a few times.

But around 2023, he decides to get himself a good job, a job he really enjoys. And despite his criminal past, he gets hired to work at a local Chucky Cheese. And he's not just working there, but he's actually the guy who wears the Chucky Cheese costume and he greets all the kids. I mean, he apparently has other jobs there too, but wearing the costume is one of them. And it seems like Jermel is pretty much staying out of trouble. But then, one day, in 2025, that all changes.

Because he's at work on this day and this woman comes in, Michelle. And Michelle is there because her kid is having a birthday party and I assume she organized it. Now, I don't know if Michelle leaves her debit card on the party table or what, but she leaves a debit card somewhere and she walks away. And then, allegedly, Jermel sees it, and he sees an easy chance to steal it. So, boom, he does, allegedly. And I don't know if Michelle even notices that it's missing, but eventually she and her party leaves,

while Jermel, he gets off work. And over the next two weeks, he alleged that, takes this card and he starts spending. He hits up a smoke shop, he hits up a grocery store, he hits up a meat market, a Circle K, he hits up a water burger, all using Michelle's money. Sometime after that, Michelle must finally notice that her card is missing and she checks her account and she sees that someone made $105 were the purchases over the past few weeks and it wasn't her. Now, Michelle, she doesn't play around when it comes to these charges. She goes straight to the store and asked to review their security footage. Once she reviews the footage from the day of the purchases, she sees none other than Jermel, who I guess she recognizes from Chucky Cheese. So Michelle goes back to the Chucky Cheese restaurant to confront him for taking her card, but I guess she decides that she wants backup. So beforehand, she calls the police and tells them to come to the place with her. Then she meets the officers in the parking lot, and she tells them the whole story,

And they go inside to get a look at the situation first and to make sure Jermel is there. And he is. He's there working, checking stamps. So police, they go back outside for a minute for something to wait for backup or something, I don't know. But when they go back in a few minutes later, Jermel is now dressed in the full mouse costume. And he's like out on the floor and he's saying hello to all the kids and whatnot. Now, it is speculated that Jermel saw the officers when they came in the first time, and he was like, oh, shit, I got to hide.

And so thinking fast, he puts on the mouse suit so that police won't recognize him. Well, police know exactly what he's accused of doing, and they know he's hiding out in that suit. So now these officers have to make a decision. Are they really going to arrest Chuck E. Cheese? The Charles Entertainment Cheese? At work in front of all these children having a good time playing ski ball or whatever. And as the cops are walking up to the place, like they talk about it. You're going to be him in the mouse, sir.

Oh, boy. Oh, my God. We're going to detain the mouse, do you? We are. Do it. I want you to. Go around and ask you. Go around.

You want me to come to bring him for kids. So that's it. They decide they're going to arrest this mouse. Ma'am, who's in the mouth suit? Was it the gentleman that was just up here? Chuckie's a little bit busy, ma'am. Chuckie, come with me, Chuckie. Come on me, Chuckie.

Stop resisting. Stop resisting. You're being detained. Stop resisting. Let it, let it go. Let it go. Do not cause the scene here, sir. I got, I got one.

And so, Chuckie's been busted, and he's being let out of the building, and you can hear some of the parents in the place get all upset. He can let that mean walk out of the dog, go, go, no. He's a criminal. What would you like to know? I would like y'all just walk him up and go instead of all these turkeys and somebody like Chuckie T. I would. Would you put Mickey Mouse in here, Cops?

I would fucking Taze Mickey Mouse if I had the chance. But I actually don't blame the parents for being mad. I'd be mad too. Like imagine you take your kid to Chuckie Cheese for a birthday party and they're all excited and the classmates from the kid's school are there and they got cake and presents. And suddenly they look over and bam. Chuckie himself is getting arrested.

And all the kids are probably like, yay, is this part of the show? And then you got to go and explain to them like, no, no, Chuckie committed a misdemeanor. Like, police couldn't have waited until the end of his shift? Or just like taking him back to the break room to change into his regular human clothes? Like, give the mouse some dignity. Come on. I mean, like, look, like this arrest causes a whole ass scene. Like, customers, they're all watching and taking photos.

Like, here's a photo. And if you zoom all the way into the back, you can see the kids looking like, oh, what did Chuckie do? Oh, but the best is this family. Yes, he's being let out. If you slow the body cam footage down, you can see this little boy waving to him like, Hi, Chuckie. But then his mom is like, put your arm down. Chuck is a criminal.

Anyway, so Jermel is getting led outside. And I swear to God, the manager comes out, and he says, Hey, we're going to need that suit back. And the cop goes, well, we'll get it back to you next week. We'll have to get it back to you to the same. Which means that the suit probably got impounded. How are you going to impound the Chucky Cheese suit? Like it's a brick of cocaine or something.

Anyway, so outside the police officers, they're trying to interrogate Jermel, and it's difficult because he's got this big-ass mouse head on. So they pull the head off so that they can frisk him and stuff. Does this come off, man? Does this just come off the top? I want to hurt you. I work you. I'm just doing my job.

I understand you work here. What the f*** is this about? And like bystanders are filming all this too, because of course they are. Here's another angle of the same thing, and there they are taking the head off of him. And if you look, you can see they got the handcuffs on and with the big mouse gloves. This is absurd. So now kids walking by can see Chuckie's decapitated head on top of a police SUV. This is ridiculous.

Now, Jermel, Well, he's not about to go down easy. He tells police that he did nothing wrong and that he never uses anyone else's card. Have you been using anyone else's credit card anywhere? No sir. Have you been shopping lately with a credit card? No sir, the only card I use is my own cash app, that's it. But then, as they keep interrogating him, he kind of changes his story and he says,

oh, sometimes I borrow my cousin's card. One of my cousins may send me with day court to go to the store here, and that's it. But unfortunately for him, police. Please don't buy it. I need my notepad so I can write some information down because I'm going to need your cousin's information. I don't know none of the information, but they send you to this store with their credit card. And they search him and on him they find Michelle's card.

And a receipt from one of his purchases in his back pocket. And I know you already saw the footage, but I got to say it. And so, bam, they arrest him. Here's his mugshot. And the case against Jermel is still pending. and I couldn't find any updates beyond that, but, you know, I hope he figures himself out because otherwise he's going to spend a few years in the mouse cage.