(ORDO NEWS) — Two Los Angeles police officers were fired for spending their time chasing Pokémon instead of performing their direct duties. It was possible to prove this with the help of a video recorded on a camera installed in a company car.
The police were told about the robbery by radio, but they were just playing Pokemon Go at that moment. They decided that they should immediately go for Snorlax, which is considered a rather rare species of Pokémon, than to hunt robbers.
The police did their best to prove that they were not playing the game, but the video indicated otherwise. Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were patrolling the area when they were informed of the robbery of a clothing store.
The court’s documentation notes that the video demonstrates how police officers discussed Pokémon and traveled to various places to catch virtual creatures using their own smartphones.
Captain Davenport also heard reports that a robbery was taking place and was not far from the scene. In addition, he saw the car of the dismissed police officers. He talked about how the car almost immediately reversed, and then headed in the opposite direction from the place of the robbery.
After that, the police began to say that they had not heard the message about the crime, but in the video you can clearly hear how they discussed it, and then began to talk about Pokemon.
It took law enforcement officers about 20 minutes to catch Snorlax. They also fought with some other digital animals at this time. The lawyers hired by the defendants tried to prove that the video was a private conversation, so it cannot be used as evidence that they are guilty.
But such a defensive line did not bring any results at all. Mitchell and Lozano were soon fired, and the appeal filed with the court of appeal was rejected, because the rights were not violated in any way and everything went within the framework of the law.
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