Police had to respond to three separate incidents in one day this past Saturday at the Chuck E. Cheese in Susquehanna Township, Pennsylvania, according The Patriot-News. We hope the police got some free slices or skee-ball tickets on that last call. Well maybe just free skee-ball tickets.
Incident #1: Police were called to investigate reports of a fight. “Police said they determined a 16-year-old girl to be the main aggressor in the fight. The girl continued to be disorderly outside the restaurant, attempted to flee from police, then resisted attempts to arrest her, police said. She was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and released to her family, police said.”
Incident #2: Police were called to investigate an abandoned 2-year-old, who was apparently left by his family (we presume they were fleeing the raging teenage girl).
Incident #3: Police were called to investigate an abandoned 20-year-old special needs woman who had “left the restaurant unattended and had to be stopped from running into traffic.”
This establishment should get rid of the animatronics and just install huge plate glass windows so diners can see the cop drama outside. That’s clearly where the real excitement is.
“One day, three police incidents at Susquehanna Township Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant” [PennLive.com] (Thanks to Howard!)
(Photo: TheTruthAbout…)
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Do they serve alcohol at Chuck E Cheese? How about crazy? A friend of mine went to central PA for work and thought everybody looked inbred. Could my friend’s opinion be a factor here?
@ChuckECheese:
They used to…then common sense prevailed.
I used to work there (first job) and it was bad enough w/o alcohol involved.
@tmyprod: They still sell beer and wine at my neighborhood Chuck E. Cheese! Apparently, common sense has not prevailed everywhere?
@Ayarkay: mine too in NC.
@ChuckECheese: The metaness of your name is FREAKING ME OUT!
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Thank you. The reason for it is that my first name is Chuck and my middle initial E. So occasionally people call me that. That’s pretty much where the similarities end. I’ve never visited one. I should.
@ChuckECheese: Growing up in Central PA, its just as crazy as you would think. Its why I chose to go to school in the city to get away from the rednecks and boredom.
@PittDragon: I grew up in Western PA, aka East-West Virginia.
@ChuckECheese: They don’t serve alcohol anywhere except bars and high end resturants in PA. Liquor licenses are very expensive.
@BytheSea: Beer/wine licenses are less expensive than liquor licenses, and that’s all ChuckECheese would need.
@AJ_Syrinx: Um, do you live here? They don’t seel beer/wine licenses in PA. There’s no alcohol in PA Chuck E Cheeses or any other resturant that doesn’t have tableclothes.
@BythS: xctly, hvng grwn p n slybj
@rocketbear79:
WTF is that last post?
Having grown up in PA and then moved around quite a bit (and known bar owners in several states) PA has some of the roughest liquor laws I’ve seen.
yes they do serve at Chuck E cheese! well the one in canton MI does. 4 beers on tap. lmao.
@kaseyk85: Wow. That’s awesome!
I’m off to book a flight to Canton, MI!
The chuck e cheese out here in Milwaukee are GHETTO. I went with a friend to take his kids on the weekend and there where multiple women there dressed like it was a night club with ultra short skirts and revealing tops. The next time for his kids birthdays we went to a better side of town’s chuck e cheese with the same result. The floors were littered with cake,wings and pizza and the Pizzas my friend pre-ordered for his booked party took a hour to make, they were trying to kick him out the place before the pizzas even hit the table.
Not to mention they had their liquor license taken away because of the amounts of fights. They really need to make a dress code and hire more help. If I had kids we would NOT go there.
@TheOrtega: This comment certainly makes some people actually want to go there.
@TheOrtega: What the hell? I haven’t been to a chuck e cheese in a good twenty or so years but this sounds crazy. I know plenty of bars that aren’t that rowdy. Maybe it’s the combination of kids+adults that bring out the crazy.
@Bob Lu: Seriously, I’m tempted to go now. I live in Milwaukee and would love to see this, it sounds like pure bliss!
I’d have so much fun fucking with people… until I got my ass kicked.
@TheOrtega: I strongly agree with TheOrtega.
Seriously, the Brookfield location had alcohol related problems, the Chase Ave one had gang problems, and the Hwy 100 one is, well, er, filled with people who don’t dress appropriately for a childrens’ party, isn’t kept very clean, and there are fights in the lot over parking spaces and such.
It is fun to watch though. For what it’s worth, what kind of gang hangs out at Chuck E Cheese. Must be a Milwaukee thing I guess.
Time for an onsite substation. Isn’t this where the Gosselin family lives?
@H3ion: Oh god, I think you’re right. Heh.
@H3ion: No, they’re closer to Allentown. This is Harrisburg. Few hours apart.
@BytheSea: They’re actually closer to Reading (west of it)…split the difference between Harrisburg and Allentown
@BytheSea: I feel sorry for Dorney park if the Gosselins ever show up there.
i live near this one – the news said that police have responded to incidents there over 90 times in the past 2 years
@parvax: @Chris Walters:
As a former Rat Packer (It was my first job, don’t judge), the article is only the tip of the iceberg. A typical weekend would involved more than one visit by the police, abandoned children, and projectile vomitting. And don’t ever, EVER, let your kids anywhere near the ball pit. I still feel dirty, lo these many years later.
This reminded me of this WSJ article earlier about general rampant craziness at Chuck-e-Cheese’s all over the country: [online.wsj.com] They mention this same CEC in the article about halfway down, which is from almost a year ago.
@rhys1882: Dead linkey.
@rhys1882: @bohemian: remove the period at the end of the link.
@rhys1882: Holy cheerios, rhys1882, that article is amazing. Here’s a working link — [online.wsj.com] — and highlights from some of the fights it describes:
And another one:
@Chris Walters: It’s like, what the hell is WRONG with people?
I remember Chuck E. Cheese from my childhood as being tacky and having sort-of terrifying animatronics lacking patches of fur here and there, but pretty well-controlled.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I put in some time working at an arcade before I started college and let me tell you, people get so HARDCORE about those darned games that give you the little tickets. It’s like they are uber desperate to get whatever cheap trinket they are trying to save up for.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I remember Showbiz Pizza seemed pretty laid-back, if a bit rinky-dink, when I was a kid. The ban always seemed under repair, but I was too obsessed with Dig-Dug to care.
Then in college my friends and I had a party at Chuck E. Cheese, and even then pitchers of beer at a kiddie pizza joint seemed to me like a bad idea.
@Chris Walters: Showbiz Pizza was the best! I always wanted to have my b-days there as a kid before they closed up. The part about the band is so true, we always felt lucky if the animatronics were working during our visit. Showbiz always felt more magical than Chuck e cheese but then again I was younger at the time.
@Alvarez: I liked Showbiz Pizza but the people in the costumes would pat you on the head so hard it felt more like they were trying to knock it off.
I’m eating pizza, minding my own business when *blam*.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): The foreshadowing of the Decline and Fall of Western “Civilization” is what is wrong with these people. 50 years from now we’ll look back and think of this as a golden age. I’m not religious (anything but, really) and I don’t intend the comment in any specific political light, but our little insulated empire is crumbling.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Ditto. Friends of my mother worked with Nolan Bushnell (of Atari fame), founder of CEC; at around age eight, I thought this was the height of stardom. I wonder what Nolan thinks of CEC these days.
Also, my best friend and I took our respective broods to CEC in G’boro, NC not too long ago. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. It was definitely thuggy inside – lots of overly aggressive people wearing gang-style attire, out-of-control kids punching the guy in the mouse suit and pushing other kids away from game machines, tickets being stolen…you get the idea.
Now, our middle girl wants to have her 8th b-day party there and I’m desperately trying to find a way to gently discourage her. I may have to hire an entire rodeo of ponies for pony rides before she gives up on this one.
@Chris Walters: I recall hearing a tale once of a crew closing up one night at a CEC. Guy walks in, takes the cash from the register, shoots everyone working there execution style, walks out. The lights were all still flashing, the band playing, bells going, and all of the on-duty employees dead on the floor. Talk about creepy…
@rhys1882: I went to CEC a few months ago, when I decided to join a mom’s meetup group. It wasn’t too bad, but that’s probably because we were there at 10 in the morning. The kids got to play in the big plastic tubes and played cheap arcade games; it was a pretty good way to kill some time…. Besides, when lunchtime rolled around, all the other moms went to Wegman’s for pizza.
@rhys1882: That is insane. I haven’t been to one in years, probably since I had my own birthday party there when I was 8 or 9 (best birthday ever!)
To me, as someone who doesn’t drink, selling alcohol some place that is mostly geared to kids and kids’ parties seems a little unnecessary. If you want to get your drink on while playing games, wouldn’t you just go to Dave & Buster’s?
@ScarletsWalk: The point of Dave & Buster’s is that it’s for adults. CEC sells beer to help the parents dull the pain of being at a CEC.
@Con Seannery: It was Dec. 14, 1993 in Aurora Colorado. Four employees were killed. The shooter is now facing the death penalty.
A quick google search brings up the info.
The EPA needs to shut all of them down and quarantine the ball pits.
Friend of mine’s little girl told another parent, “I can’t go there because my mommy says it’s dirty.”
@Elvisisdead:
*You might want to remind your friend that children have an immune system so she can tell her daughter to go have fun.
Additionally, this is Chuck E. Cheeses.
The ball pit is the last thing a mysophobe (germaphobe?) should be worrying about.
*Just in case my sarcastometre is broked.
@thisisasignin: There is a difference between being an OCD germaphobe who bathes little Danny in Purell every 5 minutes and not wanting your child to play in a pile of toys that are literally smeared with visible chunks of another poorly toilet-trained child’s feces. You think those things actually get cleaned more than once a year? At least pools have chlorine.
@yevarechecha: I feel the same way about the Playplaces Mcdonald’s has. Nas-ty!
@dragonfire81: Many places I know of have gotten rid of ball pits…I haven’t seen one at a McDonald’s since the early 90′s ,nor does the generic family fun center and newer Chuck E Cheeses
@yevarechecha:
Thanks for that. There goes breakfast.
They have not had balls pits in many many years… wake up!
Chuck E Cheese has skee-ball? Man, that is ALMOST enough to get me inside one of those places. Almost.
@ElizabethD: The one by us has skeeball. That was pretty much the only thing worth doing in there.
@bohemian: Agreed!
@ElizabethD: Somewhere other than Chuck E Cheese has skee ball? I’ve never seen it anywhere else!
@Ayarkay: i used to work at disneyquest in orlando – “indoor interactive virtual reality adventure” and the most popular game/ride in the building was the skeeball machines in the retro section.
@catastrophegirl: Skeeball is AWESOME.
@Con Seannery: Until you get pelted with a skeeball. Yes, I’m speaking from experience. My 6-year old who has clumsy issues, managed to accidentally wing me with a skeeball the last time we were at CEC. It sorta detracted from the experience.
@Ayarkay: Skeeball on the boardwalk at the Jersey Shore. Nothing else can compare.
@changed my name: Just watch out for roller hockey players.
@Ayarkay:
Are you serious? Maybe you are very young? Skeeball was a staple of the traditional amusement parks that charmingly dotted our great country, before the corporate machine called Six Flags chewed them up and spat them out. Even as a kid I hated going on most rides, so I’d play skeeball for hours while my brother and his pals did the rollercoasters etc. They were also common in beach arcades and boardwalks. What I loved was that there was actually some skill involved in skeeball, i.e., you could get better with practice. Fun!
@ElizabethD:
pssssssst! They have skeeball at the Dave n’ Busters at the Providence place mall location.
Your friendly skeeball pusher
@Ayarkay: Kennywood Park (our local amusement park) had skeeball last time I was there, granted that was about 2 years ago.
@Ayarkay: If you’ve got a Dave & Busters anywhere near you, it’s worth a visit. There is no better place to drink beer all night and play skeeball.
@Pink Puppet:
Ah, thanks. I was trying to remember where I’ve played skeeball recently. That’s it – D & B’s.
@ElizabethD: Last I heard, they were selling a lot of the games from Coney Island (inc. skeeball) for fairly cheap. Just buy one.
(please. buy all of them, so my roommate won’t)
My fondest memory of Chuck E. Cheese’s (then Showbiz), is two of these stories in one: A family fight and leaving a child.
But seriously, playing that Bozo the Clown ball-toss-in-a-bucket game was pretty cool. And yes, skeeball lanes galore.
Never would have happened at a Showbiz.
Skeeball was fun at Chuck E. Cheese but that was about all. The one I went to was dirty, and tolerable only during off-hours. On weekend nights the noise level was unbearable and chaos reigned. Low class parents brought their children to run wild and would just leave if their kid went too far. The staff seemed completely uninterested in keeping an eye on things. Don’t miss the place a bit.
I believe the restaurant in the post is the same Chuck E Cheese where this was filmed.
@Bluth_Cornballer: Yes it was…they’ve had trouble at that location before and there’s been incidents at the Lancaster one as well this year.
None of these shenanigans happen at the Leo T Catnip franchises.
Mauled children, rent, hanging intestines and male lion musk sprayed across the torsos of quivering guests, sure. But mauled children? Mauled children are well-behaved children.
my mom always though CEC was tacky, however decided discovery zone was more appropriate
**turns on singing voice**
“I’m going DZ at Discovery Zone.
Discover what I can do on my own!
I can jump, swing, crawl or mountain climb.
I’m going DZ, where I want to be!”
anyone?
@discounteggroll: Oh man, I used to get that song stuck in my head all the time. Curses!
@discounteggroll: Oh HELL YES, Discovery Zone (and “Leaps & Bounds”) were the shit.
I was a little old for them when they started doing business (12 or so), but I remember having my little brother’s birthday party there and I got to run around in the tubes and such. What a neat idea, I can’t believe places like that went out of business. My 5 year old would KILL to have a playground like that,
@discounteggroll: Holy crap, Discovery Zone was awesome! I still remember the jingle too…. I always thought, “When I grow up, I’ll be able to get in for FREE!” …. :/
@discounteggroll: Oh my god, I forgot about that place, but now the jingle is running through my head.
My bachelor party will be at Chuck E. Cheese. I want to party with those guys!
@angryneo:
Do it. I took my older brother to CEC for his bachelor party. Good times.
@CubeRat: You know it aint a party unless the cops show up!
I live near this Chuck E Cheese. It is great during the day as we used to take my son there in between therapies. However I wouldn’t go at night. Also no alcohol served at this one
I can’t count how many times I’ve been there on two hands. The neighborhood isn’t bad, it shares a square mile with a Charlie Browns, Outback, Lowes, Office Depot, TGI Fridays, Texas Roadhouse… It’s the only Chuck E Cheese in about 50 miles and about 15 minutes from lower income communities. The CEC is actually a nice place and the employees have always been very accommodating and friendly. As stated above however, this is not the first time the police have visited this particular CEC.
This is more about a greater social decline in this country than the unfortunate happenings at a CEC.
@Hobz: I think the one in East York isn’t *as* bad, at least the police don’t get called every week.
@Hobz: and we managed to get the Guardian Angels for a bit! That was awesome!
You think this is bad – you should have worked there. My first job. Things I remember from being a 15yo employee – having my wallet taken hostage by my boss until I shaved my goatee, being required to work during my company mandated 15 minute break because “I wasn’t doing anything,” the 16yo that took turns giving *favors* to staff on a rotating basis, the 17yo you was too scared of needles to try heroin but would get himself wasted on the various beers on tap as well as wood alcohol, the one manager who actually gave a crap about employees getting fired, being told after working there for two months that “oh, we can’t have a 15yo working here, come back on your birthday,” the crazy wallet-stealing manager accusing my bank teller mom of stealing cash out of his deposit – while her boss happened to have been standing next to her the whole time.
That place was a mess. Absolute, total, mess. The most important lessons kids can learn from a first job is how management exists solely to screw you.
@nbs2:
Because being scared of needles is the only reason people don’t try heroin. Besides, he could have snorted it!
@temporaryerror: That was his reasoning. I’m sure he could have gotten it into his system in a myriad of ways, but his reasoning was heroin = needles = scary.
@nbs2: I wrote a paper in grad school about how teens should be kept out of the regular service industry workforce, because it teaches them bad things, and the money they earn gets spent on the teenage equivalent of hookers and blow.
@ChuckECheese: I’d agree
The local CECs won’t let you past the red velvet rope if you’re an adult unaccompanied by children, or if you’re a child unaccompanied by an adult.
@chrisholland03: Yeah, same here
When I was a kid I remember having great times at Chuck E Cheese, but now that I have my own kid my ghetto sense triggers whenever I walk into one of these places even if I go to one which is located in a better part of town.
I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if they were always like this or if they only seemed much better when I was young because I was a kid and didn’t care at the time.
The one near us in south Austin is constantly overrun by bullying teenagers who stomp on the little kids, which is the main reason I will no longer accept CEC birthday party invitations for my little kid. Oh, SHE loves it, of course. She’s too little to do most of the games (or at least was the last time we were there when she was three and a half), but she likes to go crawling around in those ceiling-mounted tunnels, where of course I can’t adequately supervise her or even see her half of the time.
It’s loud, dirty, annoying, and the food is crap. I think it attracts the type of people who don’t want to supervise their kids, especially by virtue of the doorman not letting kids get out without their adults. I think a lot of bad parents consider that enough of a safety barrier and then, alcohol or not, they sit around jabbering while the kids run rampant.
They don’t even provide enough parking, so people are already on edge by the time they’ve scrambled for a space and gotten into the restaurant. It’s like they wind everyone up all nice and angry first!
Sooooo glad we were able to come up with a good and creative backyard party idea for my daughter’s fourth so we didn’t have to argue about not going to CEC, because there’s no way in hell we would have.
I was at a bday party for my little sister-in-law at Chuck E. Cheese and a fight broke out…this lady was throwing skeeballs at another lady and the cops came.
If you live in the St louis area, you should look at City Museum for kids parties. They have AMAZING things for kids to play on. Anyone been there?
I think they got rid of the animatronics years ago. Now its just DVD’s playing over and over on big flat panel monitors.
@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already: Some did, some didn’t. My son just had his birthday party there (ugh, tradition and ex-husbands…) and they still had the good old robotic characters.
They did have enough sense to finally remove the ball pit, though.
Wasn’t there some hypodermic needles found in the tubes at places like this (and come on, we’re not going to include McDonald’s Playhouse in this sort if league)? Yeah, I went there like twice in my life. And neither were for my birthday as I recall. My mother wouldn’t let me go in the tubes, or the ball pit. She told me about the needles found in the tubes at one joint and that was enough for me. I may have been seven, but I knew what a needle was (that isn’t as sketchy as it sounds, I promise). Used needles had and do have much less of an appeal to me. Who thought of the ball pit anyways? When did that *EVER* seem like a good idea? Put a bunch of kids in a huge enclosed netted area filled with hallowed plastic balls. Genius. Pure Genius. That isn’t a breeding ground of terrifying infections, germs, viruses, etc. Oh how fun. That is what I want for my birthday! Then again, I wasn’t a kid who loved to go to such places anyways.
I’ve never been to CEC but there is a similar place here, with arcades and games and terrible pizza. I’ve been there a couple of times for skating parties. My company hosts a family night thing there every year and every year, my boss asks me if I’m coming. Well, no, because I don’t have any kids and the noise level in there is INCREDIBLE.
A friend of mine and I share the coupon section of the Sunday paper, and the deal is always the same — I get first shot at it as long as I remove any and all Chuck E Cheese ads so her kids won’t see them. Last time she couldn’t get out of going since it was her daughter’s friend’s birthday party; she ended up over at my place for a beer afterward ‘just to get the sound of screaming kids and beeping shit out of my head’.