A Pokémon GO player was recently attacked while live streaming as he was walking around playing the game. The player, known to his followers on Twitch as Rickeybot, was walking around Central Park in New York playing Pokémon GO later at night and streaming himself to his fans as he played, when he was approached by someone from behind who quickly punched him causing him to fall. Once Rickeybot was on the ground the attacker stole his phone and seems to have continued searching for anything of value before running off with the phone in hand shortly after.
At the moment the person who attacked Rickeybot has not been found according to the details, but the live stream does continue for a couple of minutes while the person is running, and in the beginning the camera on the phone gets a glimpse of the attackers face, so followers of Rickeybot’s are hoping that they can use this to help police catch the person who did this. While this is certainly unfortunate, the situation could have ended up a lot worse, and it serves as a good reminder that players should be extremely careful when playing Pokémon GO, especially if they’re going to be playing later at night and by themselves.
This wouldn’t be the first incident of a Pokémon GO player getting mugged while they were playing, as one of the very first negative reports surrounding Pokémon GO was about players who were lured to a particular spot, resulting in them getting robbed. That incident, however, was not caught on camera making this time a little more intense. After numerous instances of people getting into some form of a troubling situation while playing Pokémon GO, the game’s creators, Niantic, were very adamant about players being aware of their surroundings and the game even has a warning message to be aware as it’s booting up, and this does a very good job of displaying that people definitely need to be more careful. This, of course, is by no means the fault of the player, as he likely never imagined being in this situation, but it should serve as a warning to other players who are considering going out alone to play. According to a tweet from the streamer following the situation, he is ok, but was going to be visiting the hospital after talking with police, stating that his “jaw is a mess.”
https://youtu.be/7z6YPVsohzQ