A pair of police officers in Los Angeles were fired earlier in the year for continuing to play Pokémon GO instead of stopping a robbery.
Back in 2018, two LAPD officers reportedly ignored a call for backup at an ongoing robbery to catch a Snorlax on Pokémon GO. Yeah, we know you’ve gotta catch ’em all. But the same goes for criminals.
The officers lost their jobs for ignoring the call, but hey, at least they caught the Snorlax.
But that wasn’t enough of a win for officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell, and they requested an official court review, arguing they were unfairly fired.
They claimed that it was “loud” and they didn’t hear the request for back-up to stop the robbery. But what the court uncovered was pretty hilarious, yet also disturbing because this is the reality of police behaviour.
According to court documents, one of the officers told the other that a wild Snorlax had appeared and they then chatted about Pokémon GO for 20 minutes, driving around to hunt for more.
At one point, one of them yelled “Holy crap, man. This thing is fighting the crap out of me,” referring to the Togetic he was trying to add to his collection.
Last week, Lozano and Mitchell told the Supreme Court that the recording were used unfairly in the decision to terminate their jobs, but as you can imagine, the court did not agree.
At least they can play Pokémon GO whenever they want now. Too bad the fad’s over.
