‘Pokémon Go’ Caused Two LAPD Officers To Ignore A Robbery In Progress

Everyone that’s played Pokémon Go has probably at some point in their life played it when they shouldn’t have. Maybe they pulled their phone out while at work and played a few rounds, or they might’ve even left work for a bit to go play but managed to sneak back in with nobody the wiser as to what they were doing. The thing is, most people who have done this before were probably not police officers, and when they chose to step out of work they likely were not ignoring calls of a robbery that was currently taking place.

If that example sounds very specific that’s because that’s exactly what two Los Angeles Police Department officers did. In recently released court documents, it was unveiled that two officers chose to ignore a robbery that was in progress so they could go chase a Snorlax. Then, after supposedly capturing the Snorlax, they doubled down and went after a Togetic. While many Pokémon Go players can probably relate to the desire to go catch a Snorlax and Togetic, doing so instead of responding to a robbery is probably not the wisest move.

The reason this information is available to us is because the two officers who were fired are currently appealing their termination of employment. Listed among the reasons why they’re appealing is because they weren’t actually playing the game, but were instead “relaying that information to groups” on their app. This rebuttal is, of course, ignoring that the likely reason they were terminated had to do less with what they were doing specifically while playing Pokémon Go and more that they were actively doing something involved with the game rather than doing their job in a critical moment.

For anyone that’s surprised to find out Pokémon Go is still being played all these years later, the game itself has managed to get even more addictive since it was first released back in 2016. Gyms were buffed up, there’s hundreds of new Pokemon to capture, and there are raids everywhere. It’s still a really fun game and in a large city like Los Angeles it can be a great way to get around town, maybe get in some exercise, and find tons of raid partners to capture Pokémon with. Just maybe don’t do that while on the clock, especially as a member of the LAPD.