Just several days after its launch, a few crimes have already popped up one by one while players are immersed in playing Pokémon Go. There have been incidents of robberies, corpse discoveries, and some even as far as involving guns and weapons.
There have already been some people exploiting the game to take advantage of unsuspecting players and steal their phones, money, and other gadgets. One instance in Missouri reported by the O'Fallon Police Department is four people using a Lure Module (an in-game item that attracts and baits strangers to co-players) at a Pokéstop to hold them at gunpoint and commit the crime.
Released on Android and iOS last week, Pokémon Go is an augmented reality mobile app which allows players to catch Pokémon in real-life, through the use of the mobile phone's camera and its GPS. There are Pokémon species locations, items, and eggs existing in odd areas all over the world that require the player to travel to real-world destinations.
There was another player named Shayla Wiggins who discovered a corpse in the Big Wind River in Wyoming while traveling during the game. The 19 year-old girl claimed to be searching for a Pokéstop by jumping on a fence to capture more Pokémon when she found the corpse floating in the water, with only its back and behind visible.
"I had to take a second look and I realized it was a body," Shayla said in an interview with BBC News. Other less intense incidents have also happened. In Massachusetts, a man woke up to see a lot of players gathering in his garden, which turned to be a former church. The Washington's Department of Transportation has warned players not to play the game while driving, and also to be sensitive of their surroundings.
Pokémon Go has only been released in four countries as of now: New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and the United States. But despite the limited availability, its usage is now on the rise to eventually beat even the number of daily active users on Twitter, according to a report made by News.com.au. Since the franchise has been popular worldwide since its first release in 1995, we can expect the app's number of daily users to skyrocket by the time it becomes available in more countries.