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Calling All Cars: Trouble at Chuck E. Cheese's, Again
The Wall Street Journal ^ | December 9, 2008 | Anna Prior

Posted on 12/09/2008 11:02:50 AM PST by Cecily

In Brookfield, Wis., no restaurant has triggered more calls to the police department since last year than Chuck E. Cheese's.

Officers have been called to break up 12 fights, some of them physical, at the child-oriented pizza parlor since January 2007. The biggest melee broke out in April, when an uninvited adult disrupted a child's birthday party. Seven officers arrived and found as many as 40 people knocking over chairs and yelling in front of the restaurant's music stage, where a robotic singing chicken and the chain's namesake mouse perform.

Chuck E. Cheese's bills itself as a place "where a kid can be a kid." But to law-enforcement officials across the country, it has a more particular distinction: the scene of a surprising amount of disorderly conduct and battery among grown-ups.

"The biggest problem is you have a bunch of adults acting like juveniles," says Town of Brookfield Police Capt. Timothy Imler. "There's a biker bar down the street, and we rarely get calls there."

It isn't clear exactly how often fights break out at Chuck E. Cheese's 538 locations. Richard Huston, executive vice president of marketing for the chain's parent company, CEC Entertainment Inc. of Irving, Texas, describes their occurrence as "atypical," saying he has heard of "four or five significant adult altercations" this year. But in some cities, law-enforcement officials say the number of disruptions at their local outlet is far higher than at nearby restaurants, and even many bars. "We've had some unfortunate and unusual altercations between adults at these locations," Mr. Huston says. "Even one is just way too many."

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: beer; chuckecheese; crime
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To: Scythian
Hit this

LINK


41 posted on 12/09/2008 11:34:02 AM PST by Scythian
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To: Adder

You don’t need a license to breed.


42 posted on 12/09/2008 11:34:11 AM PST by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: reagan_fanatic

Which neighborhoods would those be?


43 posted on 12/09/2008 11:35:32 AM PST by mysterio
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To: Jersey Republican Biker Chick

Free Riders!!


44 posted on 12/09/2008 11:35:46 AM PST by Hoodlum91 (There's a strange odor coming from the White House. Smells like BO.)
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To: Scythian

45 posted on 12/09/2008 11:35:49 AM PST by Scythian
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To: weegee

Let’s see... you get a rockin’ band and your selling selling pitchers of beer to anxious single-again dads in a party house full of MILFs?... Well, it’s just a matter of time.


46 posted on 12/09/2008 11:37:09 AM PST by Hatteras
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To: Cecily

Over the years , there have been several postings of melees at CEC’s across the nation. Proceed to CEC at your own risk.


47 posted on 12/09/2008 11:38:22 AM PST by csvset
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To: reagan_fanatic

The Chuck E. Cheese in Fresno is in an upscale part of town. A few months ago there was a fatal shooting outside the place.

My theories:

1. My personal observation is that CEC has become the venue of choice for many on the lower end of society (thugs). And thugs will do what thugs do where ever they are.

2. We have many families with ex-husbands/boyfriends/live-ins/in-laws/out-laws and what not hovering around the single mom headed households. Many times these chicks have extremely poor judgements in who should be the father figueres in there kids lives.

3. Stir in a liberal dose of bad feelings all around.

4. Bake in an oven of nonstop noise, flashing lights and screaming brats.


48 posted on 12/09/2008 11:38:32 AM PST by gracie1
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To: dead

Somehow, I just can’t see people brawling over a side bet at Skee Ball. How many tickets do you need to get a box cutter?

Forget pay-per-view MMA. I’ll just go to Chuckee’s and watch baby daddy and momma’s boyfriend duke it out.


49 posted on 12/09/2008 11:39:13 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: Constitution Day

I’ll never forget the first time I heard that on the radio. Darned near had a wreck.


50 posted on 12/09/2008 11:39:27 AM PST by GoDuke
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To: weegee

...and vampires.


51 posted on 12/09/2008 11:40:40 AM PST by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: Cecily; Owl_Eagle; Sam's Army; Darksheare; pissant; najida; r-q-tek86; blackie; Rightly Biased; ...
Funny + FREERIDER...PING!@!

"The biggest problem is you have a bunch of adults acting like juveniles," says Town of Brookfield Police Capt. Timothy Imler. "There's a biker bar down the street, and we rarely get calls there."

Ha...I knew Chucky Cheese was nothing but trouble...

52 posted on 12/09/2008 11:40:52 AM PST by Jersey Republican Biker Chick (You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.)
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To: Hatteras
Let’s see... you get a rockin’ band and your selling selling pitchers of beer to anxious single-again dads in a party house full of MILFs?... Well, it’s just a matter of time.

Too Funny !!!

53 posted on 12/09/2008 11:41:53 AM PST by Ouderkirk (Never underestimate the ability of a liberal to deny reality and attempt to change the rules to do s)
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To: Scythian

It’s the only time in their lives where they get to live in a happy world and they lose that.


54 posted on 12/09/2008 11:42:05 AM PST by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: reagan_fanatic

The Chuck E. Cheese in Fresno is in an upscale part of town. A few months ago there was a fatal shooting outside the place.

My theories:

1. My personal observation is that CEC has become the venue of choice for many on the lower end of society (thugs). And thugs will do what thugs do where ever they are.

2. We have many families with ex-husbands/boyfriends/live-ins/in-laws/out-laws and what not hovering around the single mom headed households. Many times these chicks have extremely poor judgements in who should be the father figueres in there kids lives.

3. Stir in a liberal dose of bad feelings all around.

4. Bake in an oven of nonstop noise, flashing lights and screaming brats.


55 posted on 12/09/2008 11:42:53 AM PST by gracie1
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To: Jersey Republican Biker Chick

And they say people with tatoos are bad.

Apparently game tokens are REALLY corrupting.


56 posted on 12/09/2008 11:43:24 AM PST by autumnraine (Churchill: " we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall never surrender")
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To: Dixie Yooper

because the happiness of children isn’t incentive enough. Sometimes I hate the people in this country.


57 posted on 12/09/2008 11:43:51 AM PST by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: Cecily

This article and comments leave me somewhat stunned. As a kid in the mid-80s, some of my fondest memories are birthday parties Chuck E. Cheese’s. I never saw anything like what is described here. The biggest problem was the kids pulling on the tail of the guy in the mouse costume. It used to dangle down and back, but I think kids pulling on it was so common that later costumes had the tail bent up and to the right such that it was basically pointing at the head of the costume’s wearer. This way a kid couldn’t pull it while the mouse’s back was turned.


58 posted on 12/09/2008 11:44:13 AM PST by Creeping Incrementalism
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To: Cecily
"Mama bear instinct + too much beer + frayed nerves caused by screaming/crying kids = Situation ripe for a brawl"

Add in the competitive nature of the games, and lousy food but not at low prices.

59 posted on 12/09/2008 11:44:18 AM PST by Designer (We are SO scrood!)
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To: autumnraine

I’ll take my tattoos over tokens anyday.


60 posted on 12/09/2008 11:44:53 AM PST by Jersey Republican Biker Chick (You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.)
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