Cicada Used in 'Armed' Robbery

“Hands up!”

A giant, eerie creature with wings and menacing red eyes. At any other time, such a description found here on Theresa’s Haunted History would probably indicate a post about West Virginia’s infamous Mothman. However, on this particular Weird Wednesday, we’re talking about something quite different, yet arguably, just as strange.

On June 4, 1987 two men in their 20s were accused of robbing the Cincinnati, OH restaurant, Grand Slam. They walked into the establishment and approached Marquisa Kellogg, a 22-year-old cashier. Instead of a firearm, or even a knife…the ‘deadly weapon’ of choice brandished by the alleged robbers was a big, nasty cicada. Yes, a cicada. 

Despite being a harmless insect, Marquisa fled in terror at having this thing thrust at her, which left the cash register unattended for several minutes while she composed herself. Upon returning to her post, she found the men (and their bug) gone, along with $25 in cash. Unfortunately, there were no security cameras there at the time, and no one saw the men take the money. To my knowledge, they were never identified. 

That summer, the 17 year cicadas were out in full force across the Eastern United States, including in Ohio, where local police would even claim that the insects were to blame for an increase in traffic accidents. In a later article by David Sarasohn of the Flint Journal, a rather tongue-in-cheek discussion emerged as to whether or not brandishing a cicada could qualify as a deadly weapon under the law, and thus, up the charges to first degree armed (winged?) robbery. 

But, is this story too weird to be true? Unfortunately, yeah…but there is a basis in truth to the whole tale, as Marquisa told a local newspaper in 2021. Decades after her story went viral, Marquisa was interviewed about what really happened that summer at Grand Slam. According to her, she and a friend were sitting outside the restaurant. She decided to play a prank on him, and grabbed a handful of cicadas that had accumulated there in abundance, and put them on him. Of course, he screamed and flailed around a bit, while Marquisa laughed. She then went inside to wait on two male customers. She knew these guys from the neighborhood, and considered them friends. While she was with them at the register, her friend from outside took that moment to exact his revenge. He rushed up to Marquisa and tossed a handful of cicadas directly at her FACE. 

Understandably, she booked it out of the way…and out of sight of the open register. When she returned, she noticed that the bills in the till were no longer straight and organized. She counted down her drawer and found that $25 was missing. The two customers swore they didn’t take the money, and Marquisa was forced to call the police and make a report of a robbery. A poorly written police report (Marquisa believes the cop sold the story to the media) was picked up and published in newspapers across the country. 

As West Virginia and surrounding areas are currently dealing with our own cycle of cicadas, I can only hope that no one reading this takes a certain inspiration from the events transpired in Cincinnati back in 1987. These poor little creepy crawlies don’t have much time here above the soil, so please don’t implicate them into a life a crime, nor use them to terrorize your friends while they are at work. 

Stay weird, stay spooky, and watch out for those cicadas. And a big shout-out to the Facebook page, Historian of the Strange, where I first learned about this extremely interesting and bizarre story! 

The Bay City Times (Michigan) 06 June 1987

The Flint Journal (Michigan) 07 August 1987

The Times Recorder (Ohio) 16 June 2021