Participants use their smartphones as they play the gaming app Pokemon Go
(Picture: ISAAC LAWRENCE/AFP/Getty Images)Two cops have lost their court appeal after they failed to respond to a report of a robbery and drove off to hunt a Snorlax in Pokemon Go.
The LAPD officers who were fired from their jobs back in 2017 when the event occurred were on duty and sought to appeal for reinstatement.
According to court documents, squad car video camera revealed that the two officers, Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell, had ignored a request for backup to play the game. The pair were stationed near a robbery, and when the responding officers called for backup.
Instead of going toward the scene of the robbery, the officers are said to have "moved backwards through the alley and turned away from the mall," the ruling said.
Two cops were fired from the LAPD after they failed to respond to the report of a robbery and drove off to hunt a Snorlax in Pokemon Go.
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) January 10, 2022
They appealed (said it wasn't okay for squad car recording of them to be used against them). They lost.
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“For approximately the next 20 minutes, the [in-car video system] captured petitioners discussing Pokémon as they drove to different locations where the virtual creatures apparently appeared on their mobile phones,” reads records.
On their way to capture the ‘Snorlax’, Mitchell alerted Lozano that "a Togetic just popped up.”
On the way to their next location, Mitchell is noted to have remarked, "I got you a new Pokémon today, dude."
When both were asked later why they failed to respond to the call, the officers claimed they were in a loud area and were unable to hear their radio.
Lozano and Mitchell’s supervisor was pretty skeptical of their excuse and checked the dashcam; which revealed the two had heard the call and still chose to leave the scene, denying requests for help.
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The supervisor then reported the incident, which caused a formal investigation to be opened.
In the cops’ defense, they argued that it shouldn’t be allowed for the dashcam footage to be used against them.
They also denied playing Pokémon Go altogether and said they were just having a conversation.
The ruling also noted that “Petitioners admitted leaving their foot beat area in search of Snorlax, but they insisted they did so ‘both’ as part of an ‘extra patrol’ and to ‘chase this mythical creature.’”
