'Pokémon Go' Is Luring Unsuspecting Victims Into Traps Set by Gunmen, According to Police
Source: Mic
By Brianna Provenzano July 10, 2016
Pokémon Go isn't just the latest craze in augmented reality gaming — it's also the latest way for armed robbers to lure you out of your home and mug you.
Such was the case for a string of victims in St. Louis and St. Charles Counties in Missouri who, according to an official statement released on Facebook by the O'Fallon Police Department, were lured to specific geolocations set up by the suspects in the hopes of catching Pokémon, only to by robbed at gunpoint instead.
"This morning at approximately 2 a.m. we responded to the report of an armed robbery near the intersection of Highway K and Feise Road," the official statement reads. "We were able to locate four suspects occupying a black BMW a short time later and recover a handgun."
The press release also confirms that the suspects, responsible for multiple robberies over the course of several days, had specifically targeted their victims using Pokémon Go.
Read more: https://mic.com/articles/148311/pok-mon-go-is-luring-unsuspecting-victims-into-traps-set-by-gunmen-according-to-police#.fo8tAoQTF
This is not an Onion article!
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NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)I didn't know Pokémon still existed. 
stopbush
(24,395 posts)
christx30
(6,241 posts)Smart phone app lets you look for pokemon in the real world. You go outside and find. "Look! I found a mewtu on 5th and main!"
There's a post office near me that is a gym. People will park there for 2 minutes, do their thing, and leave, without going inside.
A girl was playing the other day and wanted to find a water type. Went down to the river and found a dead body.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/09/technology/pokemon-go-dead-body/
greyl
(22,990 posts)""I probably would have never went down there if it weren't for this game," Shayla Wiggins admitted."
snooper2
(30,151 posts)Walk off the edge of a building...
All while staring at their "phone" instead of watching where they are going....
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)It is the rage now.
Sand Rat Expat
(290 posts)We live in a small city in Canada, but even so, I'm not all that comfortable with her going out walking alone at night.
TlalocW
(15,379 posts)I don't know if I'll do anything with it although it would probably be a fun way to get more walking/jogging in kind of like the Run! Zombies! game, which I found too annoying to keep using.
Bulbasaur was on my desk. Who knew?
TlalocW
bigworld
(1,807 posts)Use your common sense and don't go into sketchy locations at 2 in the morning. Do not blame this on the game.
arithia
(455 posts)Even at 2 am. That is why armed robbery is a crime.
Victim blaming isn't cool, no matter the circumstances.
JohnnyRingo
(18,624 posts)That's the street here where the crack dealers hang out.
I have every right to cruise that neighborhood at night, but it isn't prudent.
arithia
(455 posts)I have a right as a woman to wear a skirt in public without being raped.
Black men like have a right to occupy public spaces without being harassed and executed by cops.
Trans people have the right to pee in peace without being assaulted.
Victims of crimes are victims of crimes.
When we say "that person should have"... and imply, to any degree, that they are responsible for the criminal actions of another human being... that's f*cked up. It's assumptive. It's judgemental. It puts the onus on the victim instead of the person who we, as a society, decided we should punish for such behavior.
reACTIONary
(5,770 posts).... I lived near north Chicago, in a street level apartment. One morning i was late for work, left in a hast and left the door ajar. When I came back, everything of value was gone. Except my books , which were my most valuable possession , but worthless for fencing.
Now, I have every right to leave my door wide open and expect everything to be there when I get back. I don't blame myself but, as the victim, i can tell you that the victim , in this case, was dammed careless and just a might bit foolish.
arithia
(455 posts)Multiple sexual assaults. I'll spare you the gory details. Bottom line is, there was no reasonable way in which I was to blame for the other persons heinous acts, but I took the blame anyways because of my gender and/or age. It's been my experience that nearly all violent crime falls into this category- and armed robbery is a violent crime.
One can talk about being careless and foolish with regards to one's own behavior because you know yourself. When we make those conclusions about others, we are making assumptions about that person. It's projection, assumptive fallacy and a dismissal of that person's suffering. At some point you are saying "well *I* wouldn't do that, so they shouldn't.." and I hate to break it to ya, that's not how life works. They aren't you. They don't have your experiences, your knowledge, your failures to draw from and that's how the human mind learns in the first place.
These criminals used the app for nefarious purposes, setting up a beacon to lure people into empty parking lots. It is a disturbing form of emergent gameplay- something the creators never intended the game to be used for or they would have done something to prevent it. Nintendo is likely going to get sued over this sh*t and lose HARD, for good reason.
It takes around 2 minutes to do a PokeStop from what I understand. What if they had stopped in that parking lot to make a cell phone call because they didn't want to be a douche and drive on the phone? What if they had spilled something and had to pull over? What if their contact slipped? They got stung and were digging out an epi pen? 2 minutes in a mostly empty parking lot would mean a reasonable amount of safety to a large number of people- which is why the criminals dragged them there in the first place.
reACTIONary
(5,770 posts).... I didn't draw any conclusions or make any assumptions about others.
If i understand it correctly (i may not), the argument you make has a logical structure and , apart from the personal suffering and injustice you suffered, it can be analyzed in the abstract.
In the abstract it might be "I should not have to suffer any injustice and therefore I should not have to take preventive measures against potential injustice and any expense I must bear is, in and of itself, an injustice which I am entitled to resent."
Fair enough. We shouldn't, for instance, have to bear the expense of funding a police force, a justice system, live under the watchful eyes of the police, lock our doors, etc. We shouldn't have to inhibit our behavior, our freedom of movement, our personal expression through our choce of clothing, etc. in order to prevent injustice. Injustice just should not be.
On the other hand, there is the distinction between what should be and what is. And if one does not take preventive measures and bear the expense of preventing or minimizing the risk of being treated unjustly, the risk increases and the chance of it happening goes up.
When people tell me, as they have, that I should have been more careful and made sure that my door was locked, I don't take it that the are blaming me for the injustice I suffered . I take it that they are making a factual , practical point: If you make sure your door is locked, the chance of this happening is far less than if you don't, and, however burdensome it may be, it is less of a burden to do so than to suffer the consequences .
That's a fair point to make , even if it is focused more on the "what is" and less on the "what ought to be".
Chemisse
(30,807 posts)It's cold comfort to know that you had the right to walk around a dangerous part of town at 2 am, after you've been beat up.
A black man has the right to survive a traffic stop, yet his parents are still going to give him "The Talk", and urge him to be careful. It doesn't help to be right if you're dead.
As far as a woman being raped goes, it makes sense to avoid dangerous situations. No, she shouldn't have to worry that a man will rape her, but it is a fact of life that if she walks in dark parts of campus alone at night, the chances go up that that will happen to her.
While it's good to use common sense, we don't all do that, especially when we are young. But that never means it is our fault for being victimized.
"but it is a fact of life that if she walks in dark parts of campus alone at night, the chances go up that that will happen to her. "
*sigh* F*ck it.
As someone raped in broad daylight at the age of 18 on her own college campus, I'm curious to hear your suggestion as to how that could have been avoided. Generally, now's the point when people either get what I'm sayin or they start asking themselves "was she armed? did she take self defense? was she alone in an alley? in a hallway? in a classroom?"
At some point, you start shifting the onus to the victim instead of just settling on the fact that it shouldn't have happened in the first place. It's too scary a thought and your brain is backing away from it in an effort to make it less scary, more understandable, less likely to happen to you. It's how our brains have been shown to work time and time again in countless psychological studies.
Mothers telling their children to be careful of the dangers of the world doesn't act as a magical ward against those dangers. As long as they are "careful" or "polite" or "dressed correctly" or "behave correctly", they will be just fine. It doesn't work that way because violent criminals generally speaking do not care who they hurt. Victims are targets of OPPORTUNITY. The exception to this are the sickos who have "types" and it isn't someone's fault for fitting someone else's violent/hateful fetish.
Chemisse
(30,807 posts)I was raped by a trucker while hitchhiking across country.
It was not my fault and I didn't feel guilty. But there are some who would say it was ridiculously dangerous to hitchhike and that I should not have been putting myself at high risk like that. And they are correct also.
It is possible to encourage the use of caution AND also not blame the victim.
You didn't answer my question. I will amend it to include your own assault. How were we supposed to avoid our attacks? By not going out in public? What do you then say to the woman raped in her own home? Or a child by a parent? At what point does it become ok to stop shifting the goalpost and say "nope, no, that's f*cked up, that's all on the bad guy."?
I'm sorry you are a fellow survivor. There are too damn many and partly for this very reason. This is rape culture. It's still not your fault that someone did that and quite frankly, anyone who says otherwise isn't correct- simply assumptive and judgemental.
The opportunity is manufactured by the criminal. They are the one with INTENT. They are the ones who lie in wait, groom a child to be molested, offer a ride, set up beacons to lure people in. They know that most reasonable people will never see the threat coming until too late. They insert themselves into situations that they can exploit knowing full well that those situations are naturally occurring and organic in nature. (Which is why this group of armed robbers replicated a seemingly natural game function to lure people in.) It doesn't matter why the victim is THERE, only that they are, so that is where the criminal is going.
This is why you see so many pedophiles who work around children. This is why you see so many rapists who work jobs who keep them on the go. This is why you see so many psychopaths and sociopaths in positions of power. They are exploiting the system because they can. That is no one's fault but their own.
reACTIONary
(5,770 posts)RE : How were we supposed to avoid our attacks?
What would you suggest?
arithia
(455 posts)I think you may have missed my point. The answer to your question tho, is "teach children not to rape" and "end rape culture".
There is no reasonable way we should be expected to take any form of blame for another persons' violent and likely premeditated acts. They sought it out. If it hadn't been us, it would have been someone else in another situation that they knew they could exploit. That's how rapists and other violent criminals operate. They don't care if you are leaving a student center in broad daylight vs in your own home. They don't care if you are hitchhiking or stuck on the side of the road with a flat. They don't care about spiking a drink at a party vs a fancy restaurant so you won't be able to fight back later.
Their primary intention it to violate the law and get away with it. They find a niche they personally can exploit and they do so. That niche has to provide access to victims or it isn't very effective, so victims must exist in or near that space organically. If such behavior falls so far outside the realm of socially accepted practices that we have special laws targeting that behavior for more severe punishment, why would anyone expect anyone else to be so prescient that they can fully anticipate and avoid the danger?
It makes no frakin sense. Besides the fact that bit of mental gymnastics simply isn't possible to do without relying on multiple logical fallacies (omniscience being a big red flag there), it ignores medical fact about how humans learn and process information. If someone doesn't have the right neural pathways, they will go their whole lives thinking lemon juice makes them invisible to human sight. At the very least, you are making assumptive fallacies about the cognitive capabilities of the victim. Intelligence and "common sense" are biological privileges people often forget to unpack.
reACTIONary
(5,770 posts).... "teach children not to rape" and "end rape culture". Good idea. I'm all for it.
And in the mean time?
The2ndWheel
(7,947 posts)instead of just settling on the fact that it shouldn't have happened in the first place.
The fact is that it can and does happen, the same way there's the fact that it doesn't always happen. Should or shouldn't is just the human hope about things that in fact happen.
Mothers telling their children to be careful of the dangers of the world doesn't act as a magical ward against those dangers. As long as they are "careful" or "polite" or "dressed correctly" or "behave correctly", they will be just fine. It doesn't work that way because violent criminals generally speaking do not care who they hurt. Victims are targets of OPPORTUNITY.
Exactly. Saying something shouldn't happen in the first, second, or last place doesn't act like a magical ward against those dangers either. Violent criminals don't care about should or shouldn't.
People can't guard against every possible crime in their day to day life. The law doesn't stop or catch every criminal every day. That's the reality we live in.
bigworld
(1,807 posts)but crimes do happen and they are more likely to happen at 2 am in a dark place. I'm not being judgmental. I'm being realistic.
In Iceland I'd say, yeah, do it at 2 am. in downtown Philly I would say hell no.
JohnnyRingo
(18,624 posts)..If one were to walk down Highland Avenue here at midnight in a short skirt... something bad will definitely happen to her. Saying it's wrong to assume so is little consolation.
I do see your point, and it's true that in everyday life one doesn't "cause" criminal action, but there are situations one simply doesn't put one's self into without the expectation of disaster.
I'm absolutely certain you avoid such high risk scenarios yourself.
targetpractice
(4,919 posts)I've tried this game and it's brilliant yet so ill-conceived. The closest Pokémon (in NYC) to me were located between two buildings overlooking Riverside Drive in NYC... very dangerous.
cagefreesoylentgreen
(838 posts)I don't even play it, but I'm having fun watching vicariously.
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)the reason kids keep wandering around this weekend is that for some reason the veterans hall is a pokestop.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)
Good thing this fad will wear out after a month or two...
sir pball
(4,741 posts)I live on Riverside Drive; it's probably one of the safest stretches in the City. Solo women (including my wife) are perfectly safe running in the dead of night anywhere on the road, from the hospital all the way down to 72nd, or at least I assume they are given the numbers I see when I go out at midnight. I'd rather have her catching Pokémon there than say over on Fred Douglass.
Now, Riverside PARK is a different story at night, it's still scarily mugging and rape-prone south of 125th, but the Drive is as secure as anywhere else in town. It's one of the most expensive stretches of real estate in the country, the NYPD and Columbia public safety keep a very close eye on things.
Jopin Klobe
(779 posts)... really? ...
... disposable income ... disposable time ... disposable education ...
... disposable country ...
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)When I was a kid we made graph paper dungeons and fought monsters and we came out okay. 
What people do with their spare time is none of your damn business.
arithia
(455 posts)are singing this game's praises for getting them out of the house.
This kind of gaming and VR overlay is going to be big in gaming. GO is just the messy beginning.
EllieBC
(3,013 posts)You are only supposed to spend your time navel gazing and beating yourself up. There's no time for fun. It will not be tolerated!
FSogol
(45,472 posts)Pokemon Go. I think Nintendo just solved the obesity crisis in the US.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)
romanic
(2,841 posts)
Odin2005
(53,521 posts) LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)No doubt, your own forms of entertainment are without criticism, and infuse an absolute net gain of good will to the world.
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)
tenderfoot
(8,425 posts)how constructive!
Egnever
(21,506 posts)Unless you were very careful to cover your tracks.
woodsprite
(11,910 posts)We were at church today and headed down to the wharf and Battery Park in New Castle, DE. There must have been 50 or 60 people playing this. I would think the big risk would be someone saying they found a rare Pokemon, follow them and they'll show you where to get it. I cautioned the kids and my husband. We all clocked in at a over 17000 steps today. If left to my own devices and I don't make a concerted effort, I average 5-6K per day. Seventeen thousand is as much as our busiest day at Disney last year. And I will say that the people we saw were teen, even some families, grandparents, etc., out and about today, cell phones in hand, saying things like "I just caught a pikachu", "Go team Mystic!", etc.
That all being said, I will keep my own advice in mind since I'll be in Wilmington in unfamiliar territory tomorrow, and remind the kids, especially my son who will be wandering all over campus because his summer class starts tomorrow.
Gothmog
(145,093 posts)
PersonNumber503602
(1,134 posts)Somebody always has to try to ruin it.
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)
mwooldri
(10,302 posts)Stick to public places. Play with friends, not alone. No need to go to weird places to find Pokemon.
hertopos
(833 posts)I found out the release yesterday when my husband and I were talking to a guy at Deli section of local Wholefood. I was actually upset since my google news never told me this though I set an alert with Nintendo.
Anyway, I went back home and download right away. Then I had to reset my daughter's iphone ( I gave it to her when I got new big iPHone for my own birthday in Feburary. She is mildly autistic and she does not use it as a phone much yet. ) since she forgot password. It took longer than I expected because of my old PC with itune.
Anyway, this game is so much fun. Yes, it has bugs and there are so many confusion.
Think about it. It is much better world if people work and talk nicely each other instead of worrying about
someone may shoot you.
hertopos
B2G
(9,766 posts)
GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)Reality can be so stupid. What the heck do you do after "capturing" a live pokemon anyway? Take a selfie and whack off to it? Just go to comicon and capture them all in one day with heavy security all around and you win.
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)Let the record note that you're the person bringing up masturbation in relation to a popular game--no one else is.
GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)see post 43, jury.
miyazaki
(2,239 posts)Silver_Witch
(1,820 posts)so much fear mongering just live and enjoy.
