Tag Archives: augmented reality

Canadian ‘Pokemon Go’ Players Accidentally Cross Illegally Into U.S.


Two Canadian kids have inadvertently crossed into the U.S. Thursday night while playing Pokémon GO on their cellphones, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The two teens were spotted and apprehended by local border patrol cops that immediately understood upon meeting them that they were totally unaware of their surroundings and immersed in their game. NBC News reports,

“Both juveniles were so captivated by their Pokémon GO games that they lost track of where they were,” said Border Patrol Public Affairs Officer Michael Rappold.

Concerns about the new game from Nintendo have affected societies worldwide, most notably with the delayed release of the mobile phone app in Japan last week. Most safety concerns revolved around the user not paying enough attention to their surroundings to take care of themselves. Japan’s local governments had released public service fliers to express this concern prior to the release of the game on the day the game was to originally be released. One of the game’s partner companies Niantic said the delay was due to concerns about servers’ ability to handle the load amidst a McDonald’s sponsored release.

The flow of the game depends on users to venture out into real-world locations in search of characters, monsters and battles over real-world locations, almost like gang territory, and has prompted authorities to issue warnings about becoming too distracted by the digital world to pay attention to real-world concerns like crossing the street and avoiding ditches.

The Washington State Patrol said it recorded its first Pokemon-related accident Monday when a 28-year-old driver distracted by the app rear-ended a sedan on State Route 202. No one was hurt. And in Baltimore early Monday, a driver playing the game struck a parked police car, police said. The officers were not in the vehicle and there were no injuries.