Man With Warrant Gets Himself Arrested Playing Pokemon Go

Imagine this: You’re playing Pokemon GO, trying to level up your Poke-squad to take down the nearest gym leader, and then you find yourself…arrested? Well, for a local Milford resident, this is exactly what happened to the 26-year-old as his quest to catch ’em all ended with him in handcuffs.

The resident was riding his bike while playing the wildly popular app on his smartphone when his journey led him to the Milford Police Station. As the location is well-known and centrally located within the area, the center doubles as a Pokemon GO gym where users can train their pokemon to fight. However, as trainers also know, the app itself doesn’t show street names, so players often blindly wander around and use the GPS-reliant app for guidance. Clearly, this man didn’t realize he was headed for the one place he’s been trying to avoid.

With the man gaming right outside of the police station, the local police chief described the ensuing encounter his officers had with the man who had an outstanding warrant. “A couple of our officers looked out the window and saw him standing out by the flagpole,” Tom Lindberg recounted, saying that the officers quickly recognized the man after his precincts numerous run-ins with the perp in question. Unsurprisingly, the team went out to confront the man and have him arrested.

Lindberg says he’s not sure if the man had been aware of his destination as he was playing Pokemon GO, but he’s grateful for the game’s assistance in nabbing the rogue criminal. He said, “When I first learned about this game, I was very concerned it was taking young adults into places they shouldn’t necessarily be – and could get hurt, if they’re not paying attention to what’s going on around them. 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.”

With Pokemon GO on the scene, it looks like criminals might have a harder time blasting off from local law enforcement if they need to capture pokemon outweighs their desire to avoid court. It’s likely this case won’t be the last of its kind as Nintendo’s app only continues to grow in global popularity.