Pokemon GO may only be an augmented reality mobile game and those little creatures may only exist in the virtual world, but if all the stories from around the world are anything to go by, the troubles and crazy scenarios people are getting into while playing the game are all very real. While you could classify most of these stories as being funny or weird, there are also some tragic and rather disconcerting news that we keep getting from time to time. From people getting robbed at gunpoint, to dead bodies being discovered in swamps, it’s apparently all part of the deal if you are a Pokemon GO enthusiast. People have even fallen off cliffs and got stabbed while playing the game, so that should be lesson enough for players to remain aware and vigilant while immersing themselves into augmented reality. That being the case, let’s take a rundown of some of the reports from around the world that are sometimes funny and sometimes disturbing, but always newsworthy.
Last month, just a few short days after the commercial launch of the game in the U.S., a teenager from Riverton, Wyoming, found a dead body while going after some water Pokemon near the Big Wind River. Ms. Shayla Wiggins contacted the authorities, and the coroner’s report thankfully indicated no foul play. Then there were those reports about a bunch of armed robbers luring Pokemon players to PokeStops with lures before robbing them at gunpoint. The incidents happened last month in and around O’Fallon, Missouri, but the suspects are now thankfully behind bars, so Pokmon enthusiasts in the town should now hopefully be able to hunt for the virtual creatures without having to constantly look over their shoulders for trouble makers.
It’s not that such reports are streaming in from within the U.S. alone. There are remarkable stories from other parts of the world as well, from the teacher in the U.K. who gave up her job to take up Pokemon GO full-time, to the bike-riders in Taiwan who keep getting fined for playing the game while riding their two-wheelers in congested city streets. There are also reports of various museums, libraries, art galleries, cemeteries and places of worship that have taken an exception to players making a commotion and being disrespectful in these solemn places.
From an Aussie getting fired in Singapore for his foul-mouthed tirade on Facebook about the unavailability of the game in the island nation, to at least one Japanese Olympic athlete racking up a monster phone bill of around $5,000 while playing the game in Rio, the game has already presented us with some pretty remarkable scenarios, but the next one simply takes the cake. A Redditor recently posted a screenshot of his phone, seemingly showing him playing the game at a hospital while his wife was in labor. Mr. Jonathan Theriot did report catching the Pidgey that appeared on his wife’s bed, but thankfully, his wife, Jessica, didn’t seem to mind that too much. The happy couple later posted a selfie with their new-born daughter, who they named Ireland Sage.