Credit Card Fraud By Retail Employees

Media stereotypes about theft by employees tend to evoke images of men in suits working late hours and embezzling funds from their companies’ accounts into their own personal accounts. They can only accomplish this if they have the trust of corporate leadership, if they are alone on the tenth floor of an office building at 9:00 at night, where no creature is stirring except the custodial staff cleaning the third floor. It stands to reason that, if you work as a costumed mascot, you have few opportunities to commit financial crimes. You are lucky if you can even breathe in your bulky uniform, even if you work inside an air-conditioned recreational facility. One can hardly imagine a costumed mascot being dexterous enough to handle cash or swipe a credit card with his furry fingers. Anything is possible in Florida, though, the land of a thousand theme parks where costumed cast members make all kinds of trouble. A costumed employee at a Florida recreational facility is facing criminal charges for a mundane financial crime. If you are facing criminal charges for alleged financial misconduct in the context of your unglamorous job, contact a Tampa white collar crime lawyer.

Chuck E. Cheese Costumed Cast Member Faces Charges for Stealing Cheddar From Customers

In July 2025, a woman called the police when she realized that her credit card had been missing since she had visited a Chuck E. Cheese location in Tallahassee earlier that day and that several fraudulent charges had already appeared on her card. Police investigated and traced all the fraudulent transactions to Jermell Jones, an employee of the Tallahassee Chuck E. Cheese where the customer had lost the credit card.

One of the main attractions at Chuck E. Cheese is the costumed mouse mascot. Employees who portray Chuck E. wear the costume only for brief intervals where they dance on the dancefloor and greet guests in the seating area. When police came to arrest Jones on probable cause of credit card theft, pursuant to their investigation, he was wearing the Chuck E. costume. They asked him to go outside to the sidewalk in front of the store to talk to them, but he refused, and eventually they handcuffed him inside the store, still costumed.

Jones is facing felony charges for theft of a credit card and for making two fraudulent charges on a credit card within six months. The Guardian website, which reported on the story, did not say what evidence the police cited to make them believe that Jones was the one who made the fraudulent transactions, except that the customer’s missing card was in his possession when they arrested him. He may be able to argue that the evidence does not definitively connect him to the crime.

Contact Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Bryant Scriven

A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges for theft of a credit card at your workplace.  Contact Scriven Law in Tampa, Florida to schedule a consultation.

Source:

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/25/chuck-e-cheese-arrested-florida