Cops ‘Catch’ Criminal Playing Pokémon Go

Milford, MI — A man wearing pajama pants and a T-shirt was “caught” Thursday by local police after pedaling his bicycle to a Pokémon Go gymnasium, which turned out to be the Milford cop shop, where a warrant for his arrest was waiting.

Police didn’t use a “lure module” to attract the 26-year-old Milford man. Rather, it was a fortuitous coincidence that he showed up at the police station while playing the popular game that is sweeping the country and taking players to places they wouldn't go — like police stations if they're wanted by the law.

The game doesn’t give specific addresses, so players never know precisely where their monster hunt is taking them. It’s likely that the man stumbled, unaware, into his own arrest, authorities said.

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The hapless gamer is apparently a fairly notorious local character. Police Chief Tom Lindberg told Hometownlife.com that authorities have had assorted run-ins with him, including a breaking-and-entering charge that he allegedly skipped on, prompting the warrant.

A couple of officers were watching out the window as gamers came to the police station, er Pokémon gym, so their monsters could fight other players’ monsters. Lo and behold, there the wanted man was, “standing out by the flagpole,” Lindberg said, apparently unaware that he was about to be nabbed on the charges authorities accused him of dodging.

The man was promptly arrested, arraigned and released from custody on a personal bond.

“But I never thought someone with a warrant would be so driven by the game that they’d walk right up to the police station,” Lindberg told the newspaper.

City officials in Royal Oak said Thursday their fears that Pokémon Go players would be dangerously distracted by the app were not only unfounded, the opposite is true.

An alert engaged couple playing the game are being hailed as “PokéHeroes” after they spotted a small fire building on the deck of a home and called 911. Royal Oak firefighters arrived in time to save the home and a dog that would have been trapped inside if the fire had spread.

“It was a small fire that was easily put out, but because no one was home, it could have escalated into something much bigger,” interim Royal Oak Fire Chief Jim Cook said in a statement.

Image: Eduardo Woo via Flickr / Creative Commons

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