The Pokémon Go craze cannot be contained. It’s taken over our phones and our sidewalks, and it will not be stopped. Which is fine — it’s a fun game, prompting players to explore their surroundings and join forces with new friends. But with that comes its perils, in the form of self-induced injuries, dangerous late-night gaming sessions, and unfortunate discoveries. Each of the incidents listed below can be followed by the phrase “… while playing Pokémon Go.” Consider this a running guide to the darker side of everyone’s new favorite game.
Updated August 13
AAugust 10: A teenager crashes his car in a boat basin in Celina, Ohio.
AAugust 10: A drunken driver crashes a car in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
AAugust 9: A man is hit by a car in Hays, Kansas.
AAugust 8: A driver is arrested for driving too slowly and with a suspended license in Bloomington, Illinois.
AAugust 6: A college student is shot and killed in San Francisco.
AAugust 6: A child is told to get in the vehicle of a stranger in Chantilly, Virginia.
AAugust 6: Groups of people damage a historic fort in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
AAugust 6: A father abandons his 6-year-old son at home in Iowa City, Iowa.
AAugust 6: A woman is arrested for drunk driving in Port Orchard, Washington.
AAugust 5: Two separate groups of teenagers are robbed at gunpoint in Easton, Pennsylvania.
AAugust 3: A man winds up in intensive care after a fight with another man in Mount Clemens, Michigan.
AAugust 3: A man is robbed and injured in Dayton, Ohio.
AAugust 3: Two men are robbed at knifepoint in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
AAugust 3: Two men are robbed at gunpoint in Raleigh, North Carolina.
AAugust 3: A man finds the remains of an elderly woman in Clearlake Riviera, California.
AAugust 3 : Two people are robbed at gunpoint in Linden, New Jersey.
AAugust 2: A group of people are attacked by three men using beer bottles and long boards in Kissimmee, Florida.
AAugust 2: A man falls off the Newport Pier in Newport Beach, California.
AAugust 2: A man is attacked by a group in Kannapolis, North Carolina.
AAugust 3: Three people are robbed at gunpoint in Fresno, California.
JJuly 30: A group brawl breaks out in Hudson Falls, New York.
JJuly 29: A woman crashes her car into a light pole in Huntington Beach, California.
JJuly 29: A drunken driver crashes his car in Walled Lake, Michigan.
JJuly 29: A teenager is nearly lured into the car of a man impersonating a police officer in Rowlett, Texas.
JJuly 29: Two teens are robbed at gunpoint in Willows, California.
JJuly 29: A driver crashes into a parked car and leaves the scene in Oakland County, Michigan.
JJuly 28: Two parents are arrested after they leave their 2-year-old home alone in San Tan Valley, Arizona.
XJuly 28: A phone is stolen and a fight involving a knife breaks out between people in Las Vegas.
JJuly 28: A suspicious package is left by a man in San Rafael, California.
JJuly 27: A man is slashed in the face in San Jose, California.
XJuly 27: Four robberies occur and one person is injured in Kansas City, Missouri.
XJuly 27: A woman drives her car into a ditch in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
XJuly 26: A player’s car is stolen after leaving it in a parking lot in Kennewick, Washington.
XJuly 26: A 9-year-old is robbed of his shoes by a 13-year-old in Flagler County, Florida.
XJuly 26: A woman is robbed of her purse in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
XJuly 26: Six people are robbed of their cellphones at gunpoint at Niagara Falls State Park in New York.
XJuly 26: A man is robbed and shot several times in Columbus, Ohio.
XJuly 26: Two people are threatened and allegedly have a knife pulled on them in Madison, Wisconsin.
XJuly 25: A fistfight breaks out outside of a courthouse in Sherman, Texas.
XJuly 25: Two players are swatted, having the police called on them as a prank, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
XJuly 25: A woman is robbed in Rome, Georgia.
XJuly 25: A man gets stuck in a mud pit in Coeymans, New York.
XJuly 25: A man allegedly assaults his niece outside a Pokémon Gym in Cranston, Rhode Island.
XJuly 25: A gunfight erupts and two people are wounded in a park in Las Vegas.
JJuly 24: A 16-year-old girl is injured in a hit-and-run in Port Orange, Florida.
XJuly 24: A man is allegedly intentionally hit by a driver in Bangor, Maine.
XJuly 24: A woman is mugged and sustains minor injuries in San Francisco.
XJuly 24: A drunken driver crashes his car in Rutland Town, Vermont.
XJuly 23: A man is stabbed in the neck and robbed in San Antonio, Texas.
XJuly 22: A woman is robbed of her phone and assaulted in York County, Virginia.
JJuly 21: A motorcyclist collides into a car in which two people hit the brakes to capture a Pokémon in Gilroy, California.
JJuly 21: A man is arrested for refusing to wear pants because they are “too constricting” in Blaine, Washington.
X July 21: A group of juveniles are believed to have caused a four-car pileup after walking into the street in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
X July 21: A man is tased and arrested by police after refusing to leave a park in Tampa, Florida.
X July 21: A registered sex offender is arrested for trespassing in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.
XJuly 21: A man is assaulted and robbed in Flagstaff, Arizona.
JJuly 21: A couple is nearly robbed at gunpoint in Lincoln, Nebraska. They had no money on them.
JJuly 21: A local TV news station finds people are being led to the homes of registered sex offenders in Jacksonville, Florida.
X July 20: An Iowa football player is mistaken for a bank robbery suspect by police in Iowa City.
JJuly 20: A 31-year-old man playing the game is arrested on an unspecified warrant in Mansfield, Ohio.
JJuly 19: Police in Kennewick, Washington, receive calls about people trespassing on private property.
JJuly 19: A women gets stuck in a tree in a cemetery in Clarksboro, New Jersey.
JJuly 19: A man is robbed at knifepoint in Manchester, New Hampshire.
8. July 19: One person is robbed in Richmond, Virginia, on the Virginia Commonwealth University campus.
JJuly 18: A man rear-ended a car in Fall City, Washington.
JJuly 18: A 14-year-old boy reportedly playing the game while riding his bike is hit by a car in Thief River Falls, Minnesota.
JJuly 18: A man drives his car off the road in Slidell, Louisiana.
7. July 18: A distracted driver strikes a police car in Baltimore.
6. July 18: A 19-year-old man is stabbed in Greenville, North Carolina.
5. July 17: Two people are robbed in St. Joseph, Missouri.
4. July 17: Sawdust is thrown in a woman’s face in Belleville, Illinois.
JJuly 17: Two people are robbed in Mishawaka, Indiana.
3. July 16: A 21-year-old man is robbed inside New York City’s Central Park.
2. July 16: A man is assaulted and robbed in Dover, Delaware.
25. July 16: Five men are robbed in Columbia, Missouri.
24. July 16: A couple is robbed by four men, who are later arrested, in Nashville, Tennessee.
23. July 16: A sex offender is arrested in Palmview, Texas, after threatening Pokémon Go players on Facebook. (OK, so this one doesn’t fit the “…while playing Pokémon Go” scheme, but still!)
22. July 16: Two teens are shot at in Palm Coast, Florida.
JJuly 16: Two drivers crash their cars in Verona, Wisconsin, in separate incidents. They were both also cited for drunken driving.
JJuly 15: Two people are robbed in Orlando.
JJuly 15: A woman is attacked, punched in the head, and thrown onto a pile of gravel in Aurora, Indiana.
JJuly 15: A pregnant woman playing the game has an emergency C-section after she was struck by a driver allegedly targeting her in Gladstone, Missouri.
1July 15: Two people are robbed at gunpoint by three men in Fresno, California.
21. July 15: A teen is stabbed and another teen is robbed in Redding, California.
20. July 14: Teen brothers are robbed in Lake Villa, Illinois.
19. July 14: Three women discover a dead body in San Diego.
18. July 14: Man finds a dead body in Nashua, New Hampshire.
17. July 14: Two people are arrested after breaking into the Toledo Zoo.
X July 13: A woman is arrested for trespassing at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati.
16. July 13: A distracted man is stabbed in an Anaheim park.
15. July 13: Two men survive a fall off a cliff in Encinitas, California.
14. July 13: A 19-year-old man is robbed in Lake Ronkonkoma, New York.
13. July 13: A man is robbed at a bus stop in Austin, Texas.
6. July 13: A convicted sex offender is arrested for violating parole by being around children.
12. July 12: Two people are assaulted in a fight over a Pokémon Go “hotspot” in Long Island.
11. July 12: A small group of players gets locked in a cemetery in Pennsylvania.
10. July 12: A 15-year-old girl is hit by a car and sustains collarbone and foot injuries in Pennsylvania.
9. July 12: Texas teen survives bite from a venomous snake.
8. July 12: A driver in Auburn, New York, is injured after driving his car into a tree.
7. July 12: A man is attacked and robbed in Chicago.
5. July 12: Two Marines help catch an attempted murder suspect in Fullerton, California.
JJuly 12: Several people are robbed by armed suspects on the University of Maryland campus in College Park, Maryland.
JJuly 11: A woman is robbed and a man is assaulted in Seattle.
4. July 10: A man is stabbed — and continues playing the game — in Forest Grove, Oregon.
3. July 10: Four men use a lure to bring players to a Pokéstop in O’Fallon, Missouri, and rob them.
2. July 8: A teenage girl finds a dead body in Wyoming.
1. July 7: A group is robbed at gunpoint in Parkville, Maryland.
July 20: An earlier version of this piece incorrectly referred to a July 16 incident as occurring in Denver; it happened in Dover, Delaware. It also referred to a July 17 incident occurring in Belleville, North Carolina; there is no such place, and the incident happened in Belleville, Illinois.