It’s a fun, addictive mobile game (when it’s not being flattened by a distributed denial of service attack, that is), but there are some nasty traps waiting to snare players of the recently released Pokémon GO.
We’re not talking Gyarados and Caterpies (unfamiliar? Here’s a Pokémon GO beginners’ guide. And here’s a great video about what the game is and why people are going nuts over it).
No, we’re talking real-world dangers, be they physical or digital.
We’ve already seen an imposter Pokémon GO app that hides malware inside an identical looking version of the original app and that watches and tracks users and eavesdrops on their calls.
Zombified players have crashed a car into a tree, fallen off the edge of an ocean bluff and into a pond, been stabbed while playing in a park, been lured by muggers who add a beacon to a Pokéstop to lure victims to a specific spot, and have been mistaken for burglars and shot at.
One of the more recent twists on Pokémon GO dangers is a threat for a very specific type of user, though: the criminal type. Specifically the subgenre of criminal you’d label “clueless.”
As reported by Daily Reporter, a local media outlet in the US state of Indiana, a registered child molester was arrested on Wednesday when a probation officer spotted him allegedly playing Pokémon GO with a 16-year-old on the lawn outside the county courthouse.
That’s in violation of the terms of a plea agreement taken three months ago in a child molestation case.
In April, Randy Zuick, 42, had pleaded guilty to a felony charge of child molesting. The terms of his probation prohibit him from interacting with children.
According to Daily Reporter, the county courthouse, which houses the probation department, is one of dozens of local sites highlighted in Pokémon GO.
It’s been drawing in players since the game was released a few weeks ago.
If you haven’t seen Pokémon players in action, you might not yet have a sense of what that means, exactly. This video of a mob of players going berserk when a rare character showed up in a US park should help give you an idea:
As BuzzFeed reports, some businesses are milking the Pokémon GO cow for all it’s worth, be it a pizza joint boasting about having two Pokéstops reachable from its dining room, some genius selling battery rechargers at a Pokéstop, or kids who set up a lemonade stand after they figured out their house was a Pokéstop.
For their part, the police up in Manchester, New Hampshire, are alleging that they’ve got a very rare Pokémon creature—a Charizard—in the booking area of police headquarters.
As they noted in a Facebook post, invitations to bag the creature were going out to only a select group of “lucky ones.”
With the Charizard being such a rare character, we are only inviting a specific number of people. If your name appears on the following list you are one of the lucky ones. Come down to the station to capture Charizard. Hurry before the Charizard leaves!
…and then the post linked to more than 500 fugitives on the department’s wanted persons list.
Hey, Manchester PD! We saw what you did there!
RichardD
Manchester PD are counting on the 500 fugitives never having seen The Simpsons, or not recognizing the “free boat” trick. :)
Liz Walker
It leaves out the kid than was shot and killed while trying to get into a woman’s home through her bedroom window to find the Pokemom.
A Mariondale N.C. teenager was tragically shot and killed Sunday after trespassing onto private property while attempting to catch a Pokemon in the new gaming sensation Pokemon Go. There have been previous reports of injuries connected to players becoming involved in car crashes while driving and playing at the same time, but this appears to be the first fatality directly connected to playing the game.
15-year-old Arthur Digsby apparently left his house Sunday around 1 a.m., with a friend who was staying over, when the two friends noted a rare Pokemon had appeared in the nearby Pokemon list. The two friends reportedly left the house without notifying responsible adults, and started searching the neighborhood for the rare Pokemon. The friends apparently thought they had pinpointed the rare Pokemon, but could not get close enough to it, because it seemed to be inside a neighborhood home.
The deceased teenager’s friend reports that Arthur first circled the residence, triggering security lights as he attempted to get the Pokemon to appear. He then walked into an enclosed back porch of the residence, and when it still did not appear he started checking windows on the house and attempted to open them.
Homeowner Ellen Jones, a 67-year-old widow who lived by herself in the home, was awoken by the sound of someone trying to open her bedroom window. She then armed herself with a 9mm pistol that had belonged to her deceased husband. She then went to use the telephone to call emergency services where she was surprised by the teenager attempting to gain access to the home through an unlocked kitchen window. The widow panicked and shot at the teen twice, striking him both times.
The teenager was transported to an area hospital with two gunshot wounds to the chest where he subsequently died from the injuries. Mariondale police department has stated that no charges will be filed against the homeowner. Then police department issued a statement enjoining people playing the game to be sensible and respect private property boundaries at all times. Niantic, the company that created Pokemon Go, has not commented on the tragic shooting at this time.
Anonymous
Any one even a child KNOWS you do not, especially after being smart enough to sneak out in the middle of the night …go into anyone’s home not for any reason ….if the kid {may he rest in peace} was smart enough to know he needed to “sneak out” of his own home …{not even taking into count he was 16 yrs old}…he knew also you do “sneak in” a strangers home .