Laura Colvin

Hometown Life

Rather than fighting monsters when he arrived at a Pokemon gym Thursday morning, a 26-year-old Milford man instead found himself in handcuffs.

Police said the village resident was riding his bike about 10:30 a.m., looking at his smartphone in order to follow along with a map in the wildly popular new Pokemon Go game, when – perhaps unknowingly – he arrived at the police station on Atlantic Street.

The Milford police station, like many others, is designated by Pokemon Go as gym, where users’ virtual monsters fight against other users’ virtual monsters.

But the game’s maps don’t list street names for gym-seekers, making it difficult for users to know exactly where they’re headed – until they actually arrive.

It didn't take long after he arrived – clad in pajama pants and a T-shirt – for the man to realize the Pokemon gym he'd been seeking was also the Milford Police Station, where he was wanted on a warrant.

“A couple of our officers looked out the window and saw him standing out by the flagpole,” said Police Chief Tom Lindberg, noting after numerous run-ins, police recognized the individual immediately and went out to greet – and arrest – the man.

Lindberg said he wasn’t sure the man even realized where he was headed; the location-based mobile game uses GPS to guide users as they explore real life surroundings in search of virtual images, requiring users to look at their phone while not paying attention to surroundings.

“When I first learned about this game, I was very concerned it was taking young adults into places they shouldn’t necessarily be – and could get hurt, if they’re not paying attention to what’s going on around them,” Lindberg said. “But I never thought someone with a warrant would be so driven by the game that they’d walk right up to the police station.”

The man, he added, was wanted on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear in court on a breaking and entering charge. He was arraigned following his arrest and released on personal bond.

Laura Colvin is a reporter for Hometown Life.Contact her at lcolvin@hometownlife.com, 248-390-7396 or on Twitter: @MilfordReporter.