Oh the Things That Happen at Chuck E. Cheese's

Bob Dyer has a great column in the Akron Beacon Journal of the problems that sometime occur at America's favorite kids chain, Chuck E. Cheese's. In Fairlawn, Ohio, police have answered more calls there in the past three years (49) than any location other than the local shopping mall.

Dyer writes: "At some locations, the confrontations have been so heated that maybe Chuck E. — a smiling mouse who wears a ball cap — ought to vacate in favor of the Chucky in the horror movies. In Brookfield, Wis., last year, seven cops were needed to break up a melee involving 40 people who were knocking over chairs and screaming at each other right in front of the stage where a singing chicken and a guitar-playing hound dog deliver their merry tunes. That was only one of 12 fights there that required police action. Whack-a-Mole, indeed." He continues: "In Toledo, four mothers were arrested after a brawl that followed an argument about the length of time someone's daughters were hanging out at a drawing machine. Ten people squared off. In the featured bout, one loving mother was using the entrance rope as makeshift nunchucks, swinging the metal hook at another of the loving mothers."

Screaming kids, angry parents, and beer, can sometimes be a recipe for chaos...