Crime & Safety
Pokémon Go Players Arrested for After-Hours Play at Park
St. Clair Shores police say they've gotten complaints about rowdy Pokémon Go players in Wahby Park; Clinton Township woman questions ticket.
ST. CLAIR SHORES, MI — Five people playing the wildly popular Pokémon Go game in Wahby Park about 12:30 a.m. were ticketed for misdemeanor trespassing, police said.
One of the players, Megan Moehlig, 27, of Clinton Township, posted a picture of her misdemeanor ticket on Facebook and said that of the 30 or more people who were playing the game, she and the four others who were ticketed did not run.
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She and the others are “hard-working citizens” who were not causing trouble in the park, but were instead getting exercise.
She said the park had no gate and she and her group didn’t see the hours posted.
Moehlig said and her group “were very respectful to these police and most of them were polite to us while doing their job.”
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“The argument we are trying to prove here is that we don't feel this situation deserved a misdemeanor criminal charge,” she wrote.
However, St. Clair Shores Police Lt. Jason Allen defended the ticket and said police had received repeated calls to the park to control rowdy crowds drawn there by the GPS-enabled, location based augmented reality show.
“We’ve gotten numerous complaints from the public who said they were disturbed by the noise and vulgarities,” Allen told The Macomb Daily. “When tax-paying residents call to complain, we have to respond.”
“They were ticketed for trespassing. Hours for all parks in St. Clair Shores are dawn to dusk,” he said.
Moehlig told MLive.com that she and the four others plan to contest their tickets in St. Clair Shores 40th District Cut, but will comply with a judge’s decision. They will have a lawyer present, she said
“I’ll pay whatever fine they want me for being at the park after hours,” she said. “I’m not saying I didn’t break the law. I obviously broke the law, but do I deserve to have a criminal charge for it? I don’t think so.”
Also on Patch
Cops ‘Catch’ Criminal Playing Pokémon Go
- A Milford man trying to catch Pokémon got caught instead when the wildly popular app took him to the cop shop, where a warrant was waiting.
Pokémon Go Players Save Home from Fire, Family Dog
- Royal Oak city officials said they worried about some of the unintended consequences of the wildly popular app, but a pair of players who stopped by Royal Oak are credited with saving a family’s home and dog.
Image: Eduardo Woo via Flickr / Creative Commons
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