Pokemon Go App Draws Safety Warning from Annapolis Police

Annapolis, MD - Pokemon GO is sweeping the nation from small cities like Annapolis to the big city of Manhattan, and getting game players out in their community.

The mobile app game based on Nintendo's popular Pokemon franchise uses your phone's location settings to create a semi-virtual world where the user is surrounded by Pokemon. In the game, you could be walking down Maryland Avenue toward the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, and boom!, a wild Pidgey appears.

That has prompted a warning from Annapolis Police about safety as gamers head to PokeStops.

“The app uses a geolocation feature and allows others to anticipate where a crowd may gather,” says the Annapolis department. “Some have taken advantage of this feature and robbed players. This has NOT happened in Annapolis. While out and about you should always travel with others, stay in well-lit locations, always stay alert and if you feel uncomfortable you should leave.”

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A resident said on the department’s Facebook post, “I was wandering my Annapolis neighborhood at 11 p.m. on Saturday trawling for Pokemon. Probably not my smartest idea, but I won't be doing it again. (I did catch a Dratini though!)”

The app led to a series of robberies, say police in O’Fallon, MO, where four men reportedly used the game to find players at a specific location, and robbed them at gunpoint.

About eight or nine people were robbed over the weekend, a spokesperson from the Missouri police department told Gizmodo. The suspects used the Pokemon Go game to find their victims by anticipating where people might go through popular PokeStops—virtual sites in the game that can be designated at any real world location, from businesses to parking lots to churches.

In light of this viral trend, police departments are urging "trainers" to be careful while playing the game, particularly urging people to look both ways when crossing a street.

How does it work? As you move, your smartphone vibrates to let you know you're near a Pokemon. Players then throw a PokeBall to catch it and add it to their PokeDex. The game uses your phone’s GPS and camera to turn the real world into a gigantic scavenger hunt.

In each town nationwide, developers have added PokeStops— from libraries and churches to public art installations, historical markers and monuments. An in-game item called a “Lure Module” attracts Pokémon to a PokeStop for 30 minutes and they're visible and attainable to everyone nearby.

According to Forbes magazine, businesses are jumping on the PokeWagon and advertising that they're a PokeStop on their Facebook pages, which is a great way to entice players to come into their stores.

Have you downloaded Pokemon Go in Annapolis? Tell us where in the comments!

Read more about Pokemon Go here.

Photo Credit: YouTube