New Hampshire Police Use 'Pokémon Go' to Bait Fugitives

A New Hampshire police department is using 'Pokémon Go' to capture fugitives.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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An obsession with Pokémon Go can lead many people to suspend all common sense and put them directly in harm’s way. You’ve heard the stories: Players have fallen off of cliffs, some have been shot at, and others have been lured into traps—all because they wanted a rare and highly covetable Pokémon.

This week, a New Hampshire police department decided to take advantage of the Pokémon Go obsession, and jokingly tried to bait wanted criminals with it.

As pointed out by The Guardian, the Manchester Police Department went to Facebook to announce that a Charizard had been detected at the headquarter’s booking area. The post read: “With the Charizard being such a rare character, we are only inviting a specific number of people. If your name appears on the following list you are one of the lucky ones.” It then provided a link to the list of names, which just so happened to be the department’s  “Wanted Persons” page.

Funny move, but would anyone be stupid enough to fall for it? Sgt. Eric Knight told the Associated Press that the post hasn’t lead to any arrests yet; however, it’s been a hit among the department's followers, who have shared the announcement over 10,000 times and given it over 14,000 likes. 

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