Get the latest tech news How to check Is Temu legit? How to delete trackers
TECH
Pokemon Go

The bad and the ugly of Pokémon Go

Ryan W. Miller
USA TODAY
Berlin

What started out as just fun and games has turned into multiple crime scenes, religious decrees and dead bodies.

Pokémon Go has swept across the globe in just weeks since its release.  Stories of injuries, crimes, accidents and safety advisories involving players of the  augmented reality app have all followed as users go out into the world trying to catch ‘em all.

Here are some of the most bizarre, alarming and downright scary Pokémon Go related incidents:

Shootings

— Jerson Lopez de Leon, 18, died after being shot along with his 17-year-old cousin. The two broke into a home in Guatemala in an attempt to catch a Pokémon, the Daily Mirror reported. The teen’s death is the first reported fatality related to the game.

— “Did you get anything?” asked one man in reference to Pokémon moments before he was shot at in Palm Coast, Fla., while sitting in his car with a friend. The shooter saw the car stopped with its brake lights on outside his house before he went to get a gun.

Pokémon players shot at in Palm Coast, Fla.

Stabbings

— Thirty Pokémon Go players witnessed an unknown assailant stab a user in Greenville, N.C. One other person was injured, and the suspect remains at large.

— A teenage girl was stabbed and her friend hit with a pipe in Redding, Calif., while searching for Pokémon at 2 a.m. A group of assailants approached the two, asked for the girl’s purse, and attacked the girls when she refused.

Police: Teen stabbed, robbed while playing Pokemon Go

Injuries and accidents

— A man crashed his vehicle into a police car in Baltimore while using the app. No officers were injured, but police captured the accident on video.

— Ignoring warning signs and climbing a fence, two men fell more than 50 feet from a cliff during their Pokémon hunt outside San Diego. A local fire department rescued the players with ropes and harnesses after their tumble.

Two fall from cliff reportedly playing Pokemon Go

Crimes

— Around 3 a.m. in Dover, Del. Saturday, a group of people assaulted and robbed a 20-year old user. The man believed his assailants, who stole cash and a gold chain, were playing the game too.

— In Missouri, a string of armed robberies is linked to a group of four teenagers. Police said the teens used the lure feature of the app to attract their victims, and officials connected them to 10 to 11 cases across two counties.

— A registered sex offender, guilty of molesting a teen boy, was caught playing the game with a 16-year-old boy in Indiana. Police say the man violated his probation by using the app with the teen.

— A Wisconsin woman stumbled upon a dead body face down in a nearby river when she was out catching Pokémon. Law enforcement officials said they believe the death was accidental.

— Two Marine veterans found a man wanted for murder in California when they were using the app, the Marine Corps Times reported. As the Marines were out at a Pokéstop together, they noticed an apparently drunk man who began following and harassing a mother and her two children.

Bans

— Saudi Arabian clerics banned the app in the country, under a 16-year-old fatwa that declared the original Pokémon a form of gambling, even though neither Pokémon Go nor the orginal Pokémon involve the winning or losing of money.

— Pokémon Go users in Indonesia must now steer clear of the presidential palace as officials have banned the app’s use on the property. “This is the office of the president, not a playground," said Bey Machmuddin, chief of the palace's press bureau.

— Officials at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu told active duty military personnel and civilians to stay off the app on their premises. Use of the app on site could lead to disciplinary action, but away from the base, it’s fair game.

Fatwa No. 21,758: Saudi clerics ban Pokemon Go

Warnings

— Players in Bosnia were told to keep an eye out for landmines by a Bosnian nonprofit advocating for the removal of the mines.

— Police in Wyoming, Minn., had fun with a local weatherman on Twitter, asking nicely that he doesn’t venture onto someone else’s property at night in his hunt for Pokémon.

Stay safe out there Pokémon trainers, and happy catching.

Follow Miller on Twitter @MILLERdfillmore

Featured Weekly Ad