Craziest Pokemon GO Stories of the Week

Mobile gaming sensation Pokemon GO has been available for a little over a week, and already there have been numerous stories of people getting themselves into crazy situations while playing the game. From amusing tales of people going to great lengths to catch Pokemon to serious matters of armed robbery and dead bodies, it seems as though Pokemon GO has changed the lives of many of its players, for better or worse.

We've taken it upon ourselves to collect the craziest Pokemon GO stories that have happened in the week and a half since the game's launch in one convenient location. Without further ado, here are the craziest Pokemon GO stories so far:

Priorities

Playing video games at most jobs is frowned upon, but playing a game that uses augmented reality technology in a workplace that has cameras banned can lead to more than a slap on the wrist. Reddit user scarstruck4 found this out the hard way when he was caught playing Pokemon GO at the banking/IT company he works for, had his phone confiscated, and was almost fired. Luckily, he was able to explain to his superiors that he wasn't snapping pictures of confidential client information, but rather, he was just trying to catch a wild Zubat that had appeared in the office. Scarstruck4 was able to keep his job, but it's a safe bet that he will likely save his Pokemon GO playing for his free time in the future.

Scarstruck4 is lucky that he wasn't fired, but another avid Pokemon GO player, a man by the name of Tom Currie, wouldn't have minded. In fact, Currie quit his day job to spend two months traveling New Zealand in search of wild Pokemon, with the goal of catching all 151 original Pokemon during his time off. Unfortunately for Currie, it seems as though legendary Pokemon aren't in the game just yet, so it remains to be seen if he will be able to achieve his goal before having to return to the working world and finding another job.

Choosing Pokemon GO over work is a pretty questionable decision, but choosing it over the birth of your child is arguably worse. For some, it seems almost unthinkable that someone would be playing Pokemon GO or any video game while their wife was in labor, but Jonathan Theriot did just that, catching a wild Pidgey as his wife was preparing for a C-section delivery.

Be Aware of Your Surroundings

The loading screen for Pokemon GO stresses the importance of being aware of one's surroundings when playing the game, but even so, there have been some unfortunate accidents. One teenage girl was hit by a car when trying to return home after a night of playing Pokemon GO, and two men from California accidentally fell off a cliff in search of the elusive pocket monsters as well.

One Pokemon GO player that was definitely aware of her surroundings was Shayla Wiggins. When Shayla was exploring her hometown of Riverton, Wyoming in search of wild Pokemon, she found something she couldn't have expected. The Pokemon GO app led her to a dead body floating in the riverbank, with the deceased man apparently having died from an accidental drowning.

It's a good thing Shayla was paying attention to her surroundings, otherwise the deceased man may not have been discovered as soon as he was. Pokemon GO player Evan Scribner should probably take notes from Shayla, as his lack of awareness saw him catch Pokemon near his ex-girlfriend's house – who he was cheating on his current girlfriend with. As Pokemon GO players know, the game records where a Pokemon is caught, and when Scribner's girlfriend saw where he caught some of his new Pokemon, she realized that Scribner wasn't being faithful.

Crime

One of the ways players are able to make rare Pokemon appear in Pokemon GO is by placing lure modules at PokeStops. Lure modules don't only lure wild Pokemon, though, they also draw in other players, and armed robbers in Missouri took advantage of this feature to swipe the belongings of unwitting Pokemon GO players.

Pokemon GO hasn't just been used for committing crimes; to some extent, the game can also be credited for helping prevent them. A couple of Marine Corps veterans, Javier Soch and Seth Ortega, were out playing the game when they noticed a suspicious man harassing a woman and her children. Soch and Ortega protected the family, apprehended the man, and called the police. As it turns out, the man was wanted for attempted murder, and if Soch and Ortega weren't out playing Pokemon GO that day, the man could still be walking free.