A Los Angeles police officer and a Los Angeles police officer were fired after they chose to chase a Snorlax in PokemonGO instead of stopping a robbery in progress at a local mall.
Vice reports and court documents described how former LAPD officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were on foot beat patrol when a robbery occurred at the Macy’s at Crenshaw Mall on April 15, 2017. Calls began going out to police in the vicinity to respond and some, like a unit that was at a homicide crime scene, rushed over to the mall.
Lozano and Mitchell, on the other hand, ignored the call at first and replied “no” when asked again. According to the report, they “willfully failed to respond to the robbery call and attempted to conceal the fact” by saying they were somewhere else than where they were.
While listening to the recording in Lozano and Mitchell’s police car, the LAPD also discovered that they were playing PokemonGO the day of the robbery.
Officer Mitchell told Officer Lozano that Snorlax had appeared at 46th and Leimert at approximately 6:09 p.m. (just five minutes after Officer Lozano said “screw it” to checking in about the robbery call), according to court documents. As Mitchell noted that ‘Leimert doesn’t go all the way to 46th,’ Lozano responded, ‘Oh, you know what I can do? I’ll swing up on Crenshaw, I know that way I can get there.’ Mitchell suggested another route, then told Lozano, ‘We got four minutes.’
For approximately 20 minutes, the DICVS recorded petitioners discussing Pokémon as they drove to different locations where the virtual animals appeared on their smartphones. As they drove to the Snorlax location, Officer Mitchell alerted Officer Lozano that ‘a Togetic just appeared,’ noting it was near Crenshaw, just south of 50th. After Mitchell apparently caught the Snorlax and exclaimed, ‘Got them,’ petitioners agreed to pick up the Togetic and drove off.”
In order to end their watch, they returned to a 7-Eleven after successfully catching the Togetic, which Lozano “buried and ultra-balled.” They later lied about playing Pokemon GO, saying they were “merely having a discussion” and “capturing a picture” of the Pokemon with an app.
After being charged with multiple counts of on-duty misconduct and fired, they tried to appeal their case by stating they were not aware their conversations were being recorded and that their words should be considered “private.” On January 7, 2022, the court denied the appeal.
In 2022, Pokemon Legends: Arceus will be released – another game in the beloved franchise which may offer yet another chance for someone to get in trouble for playing it when they shouldn’t.
