Pokemon Go Is a Monster Mobile Hit!

Local Editor

Police in Missouri put out a warning that was both terrifying and bizarre: Armed robbers were believed to be targeting people hunting for Pokemon.

You read that right. Pokemon. The little monsters.

Police said the victims were playing Pokemon Go - a new smartphone app that encourages gamers to search local areas to find Pokemon in the "real world".

Certain locations offer bonuses and higher chances of catching rare species and that's where officers said criminals had been lying in wait.

"It is believed these suspects targeted their victims through the Pokemon Go smartphone application," the post on the force's Facebook page read.

"Apparently they were using the app to locate people standing around in the middle of a parking lot or whatever other location they were in."

The incident was just one of several odd goings-on in the first weekend of Pokemon Go's release - a title that achieved such rapid popularity it had to be briefly shut down while servers were upgraded to handle demand.

The app's innovation is its use of augmented reality. The Pokemon are placed within real-life views captured by the phones' cameras.

When I fired up my app for the first time, a little Charmander was lurking near my TV cabinet.

Within moments, I had my shoes on and was out of the door to find more - I needed to get to a nearby Pokestop, a location where you gather supplies.

It turns out the fairly inconspicuous corner near my flat is something of a Pokemon hotspot thanks to a little landmark - a mural above eye level - that I hadn't even noticed before.

Great, I thought - that'll be handy, having a Pokestop so near my house. And then it hit me - I'm 30 next year.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team