Police Departments In The U.S. Are Issuing Some Hilarious Warnings About Pokémon Go
“It looked like a bunch of trendy zombies following a mystical GPS device.”
Police departments in the U.S. are being forced to issue warnings about Pokémon Go after reports of suspicious activity, trespassing, and in once case, armed robbery, have surfaced in the wake of the app's massive popularity.
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"It looked like a bunch of trendy zombies staring aimlessly at their phones," the Largo Police Department in Florida said in a Facebook post Monday.
The Largo Police Department has increased its presence in areas that are popular in the app, Public Information officer Lt. Paul Amodeo told BuzzFeed News Wednesday. He said police officers are aware of areas frequented by people searching for the virtual Pokémon creatures.
Amodeo said that while they haven't received any complaints so far, "there are certainly concerns" regarding the app, especially with the “Lure Module,” which invites other players to come to a location "for 30 minutes" and collect Pokémon.
"We haven't had anybody doing anything nefarious or bad, but it's certainly a concern if parents are paying attention to their kids and just general situational awareness," Amodeo said.
The most populated Pokémon Go area so far has been the Largo Central Park which has 10 “Pokéstops” according to Amodeo. He said that two of their officers, including a cyber detective have downloaded the app on their phone "to keep tabs on it."
"A couple of our other officers are just playing it, even though they might not admit it," Amodeo said.
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The Bellingham Police Department in Massachusetts has received at least three complaints of "suspicious activity" since Friday, which turned out to be people playing Pokémon Go, Detective Stephen Daigle told BuzzFeed News.
"We responded to a suspicious person outside a liquor store at almost 1 a.m. on Friday," Daigle said, adding this was their first Pokémon Go -related complaint. The "suspicious person" showed the responding officer his phone with the Pokémon Go app.
Parents with children also reported a "suspicious party" when they noticed "a lot more teenagers and young adults on their phones" gathered in the gazebo at the Town Common on Monday morning, Daigle said. The parents suspected drug activity, but it was just "4 to 5 kids" who had come separately to collect the Pokémon Go characters in the gazebo, he said.
An officer stopped around 3:45 a.m. early Wednesday, when he saw "a couple of kids" in the parking lot of a Subway restaurant which had previously been broken into several times. However the two people "had found something" related to the game there, Daigle said.
Daigle, who is considering downloading the app on his department mobile phone, said he would caution people to be aware of their surroundings while playing the game and not to go any isolated areas where they could become targets of robberies and assault.
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"Yes this is a real facebook post and warning!" the Northbridge Police Department in Massachusetts said, after they received "numerous calls for people (kids and adults) walking in the middle of the road."
A spokesperson for the department told BuzzFeed News they had received a "handful of calls," of people walking on the road while playing the game. The spokesperson added the callers were concerned with the welfare of the individuals.
"Do not Pokemon Go and drive," the department also warned in its Facebook post.
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