Pokemon Go to Blame for Illegal Border Crossing
BENGALURU: There have been some strange and weird things in the recent days to suggest that some thing is just not right with the world. Cars parked in odd places. Millenials wandering the streets. While it looks like a scene straight out of ‘The Walking Dead’, it’s something else. It si the first real spalsh in Augmented Reality (AR), the Pokemon Go. This craze among youths led two youths unaware of their surroundings when they were playing Pokemon Go on their cell phones make an illegal border crossing from Canada into the United States in a remote part of Montana, US Customs and Border Patrol said.
The two, who were not identified, were found by US Border Patrol agents on Thursday, with their attention affixed to their phones as they were trying to hunt down cartoon characters on a journey that took them over the border.
"Both juveniles were so captivated and engrossed by their Pokemon Go games that they lost track of where they were," said Michael Rappold, a spokesman for the agency.
The two youths were later reunited with their mothers at a nearby border patrol station, the agency said.
Developed by Bay Area software company Niantic and released upon the US public on July 6, 2016, Pokémon Go has been an unexpected success from Spain to Australia, doubling Nintendo’s value since the game's launch in the United States earlier this month.
Using mobile devices, players search for virtual Pokemon characters that appear to pop up at office spaces, restaurants, museums and other places. Players score points in various ways, including capturing the Pokemon characters with a flick of a finger on their phone screen.
The game was also to blame for a range of car accidents and a slew of mishaps stemming from distracted players.
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