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A handful of suspicious activity complaints recently throughout the county were determined to be related to a new cellphone-game that is sweeping the wireless world.  

The Pokemon cartoon creators have gotten together with Ninetendo to offer a cell phone app that is part scavenger hunt and part fantasy.  To play-- a participant follows an electronic  map, often by walking down the middle of a street;   so if you notice people holding their phones out in front of them while strolling the street, they are probably playing PokemonGo.

The cellphhone application directs gamers to follow previously mapped city streets viewed on the screen of the phone.  Players walk to Pokemon sites (you need to move at a slow pace) to “find” virtual characters to add to the collection.  

There are sites on the cell phone app identified as Pokemon “gyms” where “trainers” hangout and you can do Pokemon battles pitting your collected characters against another. At least two locations have blue dots on the Lindstrom street map as gyms, and other local towns have varying numbers of “gyms” that show up on the screen.  

Among the complaints that law enforcement have gotten are similar to a call from a homeowner on Norman Lane in Center City July 9,  concerned about the cluster of people walking in the middle of the street at 11 p.m.  There also was a call from the vicinity of Calvary Cemetery in Rush City July 9, about midnight. A sheriff’s deputy responding actually played the game with the group for a brief time and posted on Facebook in the sheriff’s “Tweets from the Street.”

An Internet CNN newssource is reporting many incidents across the U.S. where there have been players struck by vehicles while concentrating on their phone screen and there are reports where gamers have been lured into phony gyms, where they’ve been victims of robbery and assault. Basically authorities ask you to steer clear of private property while on your quest for Pokemon and be mindful of your surroundings.

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