How Far Are People Willing To Go To Catch 'Em All?

By Danice Abril

If you haven’t heard of Pokémon Go yet, then you must be a total hermit living under a rock, way way underneath the Earth’s crust.

Pokémon Go was released about a week ago yet it has an estimated 7.5 million downloads in the United States and a total of $1.6 million in daily revenue in Apple’s iOS store as of July 11. Just imagine the numbers when they release it worldwide, right?

Okay, for all you hermits reading this—what is Pokémon Go? In layman’s terms, it’s a mobile app where you get to live your dream as a Pokémon trainer. Second, how does it work? It’s a GPS-enabled mobile game app where players are required to explore various locations to hunt down Pokémon. Different Pokémon appear depending on the time and location, which makes it even more thrilling. Lastly, what’s the big deal? Come on, it’s one of the biggest franchises of the ‘90s. Why wouldn’t it be a big deal?

Pokémon Go has also unsurprisingly taken over the social media. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat—you name it. Check out some of the funniest and craziest stories of how far people are willing to go to catch ‘em all.

1.A church that turned into a Gym

Boon Sheridan lives in a church-turned-house in Massachusetts with his wife and cats. After downloading Pokémon Go, he soon found out that his house registered as a gym for Pokémon to train and fight. Boon thought it wasn’t a big deal at first until the next morning, when a huge number of people appeared with their mobile phones in hand, snapping away in front of his house. Thankfully, he was welcoming to these Pokémon trainers. ()

Screen grabs from: @boonerang (https://twitter.com/boonerang)

2. Pokémon Go and a potential CSI case

That awkward moment when you’re hunting for Pokémon but end up stumbling upon a corpse instead—yup, it’s actually happened. A 19-year-old girl named Shayla Wiggins found a dead body floating in the Wind River in Riverton, Wyoming. What was supposed to be an adventure in hopes of finding a Pokémon from a natural water resource turned into a shocking discovery of a deceased man.

3. The new Team Rocket

You would think Team Rocket’s the only villain you would face but in the real world, we have far worse people than them. Just recently, Missouri police arrested four armed robbers with a bond set at $100,000. The robbers were also responsible for similar theft cases in the nearby counties. They would use Pokémon Go to lure their victims to isolated places like parking lots. I know you gotta catch ‘em all but you gotta catch ‘em safely!

4. The real Pokémon trainers

The game may have been designed for younger people but we all know that the pioneer Pokémon trainers are now adults and they still want to be the very best like no one ever was. Take a look at this amusing Facebook post right here: