The Pokémon Go craze seems to have cost two police officers a lot. Two cops, Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell from the Los Angeles Police Department, received a report of theft on April 15, 2017, but ignored it because they were playing Pokemon Go at the time, BBC News reports, citing police records. Instead of responding to the robbery that was taking place at a Macy’s store, they drove around in police cars for 20 minutes trying to catch a Snorlax and a Togetic.
Lozano and Mitchell denied the allegations, but thanks to the dash cam, the truth was immediately revealed. Two cops hear the call, but don’t answer and prefer to chase after Pokemon.
It is estimated that this case is not the only case, which is a striking example of the bindingness of augmented reality games and how they cause us to forget or give up on what we need to do in the real world.