In response to the ubiquity of the new mobile game, Navy recruiters in Clarksville, Tenn., posted signs last week encouraging people to join the Navy so they could travel the world and collect Pokémon.
“Would you like to play Pokémon Go around the world?” the flyer asks. “The United States Navy has the ability to take you around the world, allow you to play Pokémon Go, and help you achieve the goal of being a Pokémon master!”
Navy higher-ups weren’t necessarily pleased with the poster. They asked the recruiters to remove the posters from Facebook and take them down in public. In an emailed statement to Quartz , the Navy said, “Some recruiters made a bad decision in attempting to use the current Pokémon phenomenon to recruit Sailors for the Navy.”
Instead, recruiters will now stick to the basics, according to the Navy’s official mission: winning wars and maintaining freedom of the seas.
– Do not ‘Go’ in the nuclear disaster zone
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings has asked Pokémon Go developer Niantic to keep Pokémon out of the Fukushima nuclear exclusion zone, the Guardian reports.
A 2011 tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people also damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The Japanese government created a protective zone around the plant and evacuated nearby residents.
But the power company this week said its employees have tested the exclusion zone and found Pokémon there. The company has banned its employees from playing the game on the site and heightened security after three American teens mistakenly wandered into a nuclear power plant in Ohio last week.
– Woman arrested in Pokémon Go hit-and-run
A Brewer, Maine, woman has been arrested and accused of ramming her car into a Pokémon Go player and speeding off, police say.
Jeannie Chapman, 37, allegedly drove her car toward a Pokémon Go-playing pedestrian in a crosswalk in Bangor, Maine, and when the pedestrian did not move quickly enough, she backed her up, then sped forward and hit the man, the Bangor Daily News reports.
Bystanders took down Chapman’s license plate number and gave it to police. Nearby off-duty paramedics, who were also both playing Pokémon Go, administered first-aid.
Chapman has been charged with aggravated assault, a crime that carries up to 10 years in prison, and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, which carries up to five years.
– They’re both playing the game
A Toronto woman called area police to report nearly being hit by a car while playing Pokémon Go, reports CBC News.
While police questioned the pedestrian, the driver returned to the intersection and told police he also was playing Pokémon Go at the time of the incident.
Police declined to press charges because no collision occurred, but they have warned drivers not to play the game while behind the wheel and have asked pedestrians to be more aware of their surroundings while playing the game when crossing streets.
– Stuck in the mud
A 62-year-old upstate New York man got stuck in waist-deep mud behind his house at 2 a.m. Sunday while playing Pokémon Go, reports AP.
The man called 911 using the same phone on which he was playing the game and directed rescuers to his location through thick woods by pinging a police officer’s phone.
