Advisory

The City of Berkeley has become the latest community to discover a growing crime trend related to the highly popular Pokémon Go smartphone game. In the last month there have been two completed and one attempted pedestrian robberies where the victims were all distracted by the game. One robbery resulted in the arrest of two adults.

On 7/12/16 at 9:15pm, Berkeley Dispatch received calls regarding a screaming woman in the 2300 block of Dana Street. Officers responded and made contact with the victim who said she was walking eastbound on Durant Avenue when she had just finished playing the game. She said she cut through a parking lot on the south side of the street when she noticed she was being followed by two suspects. One of the two knocked her to the ground while he attempted to take her phone. The other suspect pulled her purse off of her shoulder. The suspects then fled northbound through the parking lot and got into a waiting SUV which fled southbound on Dana Street. The victim described the suspects as two young “baby-faced” black male adults, slender build, wearing dark hooded sweatshirts.

On 7/31/16 at approximately 2:46pm, we responded to a report of a robbery that had just occurred in the area of Parker and Warring Streets. The suspect jumped out of a waiting vehicle, punched the victim and then took his phone from his hand. The victim described the suspect as a black male juvenile, 16 years old, wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt. Following the robbery the suspect ran to a waiting sedan and fled southbound on Warring Street. The suspect vehicle was stopped a few miles from the crime scene and two arrests were subsequently made.

The attempted robbery occurred most recently on 8/8/16 at around 5:30pm in Civic Center Park, 2151 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The intended male victim was in the park playing the game when someone tried to grab the phone from his hand. The victim struggled with the suspect and successfully retained his phone. The suspect was described by the victim as a black male juvenile, 15-16 years old, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with black and white Air Jordan sneakers. The suspect fled eastbound on Allston Way.

Like many other law enforcement agencies, the Berkeley Police Department encourages members of the community to follow these simple safety tips:

· Leave your smart phones in a pocket until you get where you are going

· If you intend on playing the game at night, consider doing so with a group of friends

If members of the community have information regarding the above cases they are encouraged to contact the Berkeley Police Department Robbery Detail at (510) 981-5900. For all emergencies or in progress calls please dial 9-1-1 from your landline or (510) 981-5911 from your cell phones.