Pokémon Go: 10 Crazy Places We Found Players

The Pokémon craze has long been built on the slogan, "Gotta catch 'em all!" And the "Pokémon Go" mobile game has taken that obsessive "gotta" idea to a new level.

Players are walking into traffic, skulking through cemeteries, frequenting dusty small businesses (thanks!) and parks that haven't seen this many people since cable was invented (thanks, again!).

Pokémon Go is a wildly popular augmented reality game that has players search public places to capture creatures in the game on their mobile phone. It has quickly become the most popular video game on the planet with millions of downloads.

In a little more than a week since the game opened in the U.S., Patch has found players in the strangest places. Here are 10 of them:

Saving a Home From a Fire

Two gamers were playing in Royal Oak, Mich., when they spotted a fire on the back deck of a home and called 911. Nobody was home and local fire officials said the small fire could have destroyed the house if the couple hadn't spotted it while walking by. “They saved my house,” Randall Bishop told the Detroit Free Press. “This whole Pokémon thing is obviously a positive.”

• Naked Female Vandal Found by Pokémon Go Players

Discovering a Dead Body
A man playing Pokémon Go in Nashua, N.H., Thursday afternoon stumbled across a dead body floating in a brook at a downtown park. "Apparently the person was playing this Pokémon game, which led him to an obscure spot," Nashua police Lt. Robert Giggi told reporters. "That's how he came across the victim."

Discovering Another Dead Body

Three women playing the game in Marian Bear Memorial Park in San Diego came across a dead body. The man appeared to have died from natural causes, San Diego police Spokesman Travis Easter told Patch. "He passed away down there and just hadn't been found," Easter said.

Falling Off a Cliff

Two men were reportedly so engrossed in playing Pokémon Go on their cellphones Wednesday in Encinitas, Calif., that they fell off a sea bluff. "Encinitas lifeguards encountered one male on the beach and a second male approximately 50 feet below the bluffs," according to Encinitas fire Marshal Anita Pupping. Both men suffered moderate injuries.

Caught Hanging at the Tiger Cage — After Hours

Security cameras caught two Pokémon Go players after they jumped the fence at the Toledo Zoo in Ohio. The pair was spotted gaming next to the tiger enclosure. The gamers, ages 25 and 26, were charged with criminal trespass.

• Pokémon GO Players Nabbed Inside Closed Elementary School

Caught Stopped in the Middle of the Road

After already ticketing one driver for driving erratically while playing the game in the overnight hours Friday, a traffic cop in Vienna, Va., found a second car stopped in the middle of the road. The carload of Pokémon Go players told the officer they were playing the game. The driver was issued a summons.

• Driving While Pokémoning: Upstate NY Man Crashes Into Tree

Caught — With a Warrant

A man wearing pajama pants and a T-shirt was “caught” by police Thursday in Milford, Mich., after pedaling his bicycle to a Pokémon Go gymnasium, which turned out to be the Milford Police Station. A couple of officers were watching gamers collect outside the station when they noticed the man, wanted on a breaking-and-entering charge, standing by the flagpole.

• Pokémon Go Capture in Fullerton: Attempted Murder Suspect
• Pokémon Gym at NH Police Station Prompts Safety Warning

Hunting in the Holocaust Memorial Museum

Pokémon Go players have been using the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., as their own personal battleground. "Playing Pokémon Go in a memorial dedicated to the victims of Nazism is extremely inappropriate," museum spokesperson Andy Hollinger said. "We are attempting to have the Museum removed from the game."

Robbed at Gunpoint

A group of players — with cell phones in hand — headed out to a Baltimore, Md., park in the overnight hours Thursday. But they didn't have their cell phones for long. Armed robbers met the group at the front entrance of the park and took their phones and cash. Investigators had not determined whether the group was targeted because they were playing the game.

• Pair Assaulted During Fight Over Pokémon Go Hotspot
• Teen Brothers Robbed at Gunpoint While Playing Pokémon
• Man Stabbed at Anaheim Park while Distracted by Pokémon Go

On the Campaign Trail

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton held a campaign event Saturday at a Pokémon Go stop in Lakewood, Ohio. She quipped earlier in the week, "I don't know who created Pokémon Go, but I'm trying to figure out how we get them to have Pokémon Go to the polls."

• National Mall in D.C. Hosting Pokémon Go Hunts

Includes reporting by Patch staff