LAPD police officers fired for playing Pokemon Go on the job and ignoring an actual robbery | Digit

Sometimes your gaming habits could get you into really serious trouble and that’s exactly what happened to two police officers in Los Angeles. The LAPD has fired two police officers who literally ignored a robbery to play Pokemon Go. Talk about a bad habit! Back in 2017 officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were caught ignoring a police radio call regarding a robbery to try and catch a Snorlax. They spent the next 20 minutes driving around looking for the rare creature while there was an actual robbery taking place. There are levels to addiction but this just takes the cake. These officers took the ‘Gotta catch em all’ tagline a little too seriously, leading to their dismissal. 

Police Officers fired for playing Pokemon Go on the job

Originally reported on BBC News, the officers protested saying that they were merely having a conversation regarding the game, but the camera footage from the camera in the police vehicle would seem to suggest otherwise. The footage shows the officers ignoring the initial call. They then drove away from the area, presumably because they got a whiff of a Snorlax. The officers were then charged and also lost an appeal to have the video evidence removed on grounds of rights violations. They were found guilty of failing to respond to a robbery call, making misleading statements, failing to respond to the radio when contacted, playing Pokémon Go on duty, and making false statements under investigation. 

Video game addiction is no laughing matter and in an instance such as this, people could have lost their lives. The officers are now facing a battery of charges and have lost their jobs. The kicker of the whole thing was that they lied about the situation saying that they were only talking about catching the Pokemon and not actually playing the game. But, clearly, the evidence says otherwise. 

Also Read: Pokemon Go Turns 5: We Take A Look At How It Changed Mobile Gaming