Florida has given us a lot. But this one feels like a milestone.
Jermel Jones, 41, was arrested inside a Chuck E. Cheese in Florida while wearing the Chuck E. Cheese mascot costume. He is alleged to have used someone else’s credit card to make purchases, which he did while dressed as a six-foot animatronic rat, in a restaurant full of children and their parents, who watched the whole arrest go down.
Let’s sit with the layers here. He didn’t just commit fraud. He committed fraud in costume, in a venue specifically designed for children’s birthday parties, as the mascot of that venue. The children came to see Chuck E. Cheese. Instead they witnessed an arrest. This is what Florida offers its youth.
We have a lot of questions. How did he get the costume? Did he work there? Was this planned, or did he show up in the costume and then decide to also commit credit card fraud? At what point did he think this was going well?
Florida Man does not answer these questions. Florida Man simply continues to exist, wearing the costume, until the cops show up.
Hat tip to this roundup of 2025’s finest Florida Man moments for surfacing this gem.