Victor Li had his iPhone in one hand and a package of instant noodles in the other when he heard footsteps behind him.

The Western University student was taking a quick study break and had walked down to a nearby variety store to grab a snack.

As he returned to his house on Aldersbrook Road in Whitehills at about 8 p.m. on Monday, Li was playing Pokemon Go on his cellphone.

The 21-year-old says he was just a few blocks from home when five teens came up from behind and one sucker punched him.

“They pushed me down to the snow,” said Li. “I heard one of them say, ‘He has a phone.’”

After a short scuffle on the ground, the teens pried the phone from Li’s hand before fleeing, he said. He briefly chased his attackers before asking a couple shovelling snow to call police.

The attack left Li bloodied, bruised and with a sprained left elbow. At his parents’ urging, he visited the emergency room to make sure he didn’t have a concussion.

Li took to Facebook to warn the city’s Pokemon Go community about the “cowardly attack” and encourage them to stay safe when playing.

“Make sure you’re not alone when it’s dark, no matter how early it is,” Li wrote alongside two photos of his battered face.

Police say five teens are being sought in the assault.

Const. Sandasha Bough, a spokesperson for London police, wouldn’t comment on whether Pokemon Go played a roll in the robbery, citing the ongoing investigation.

Stories about Pokemon Go players being robbed, beaten, shot, falling off cliffs, struck by vehicles and even stumbling upon dead bodies dominated headlines around the world in the weeks following the summer release of the location-based game.

“It got the kind of coverage that a war might get,” Western professor and pop culture expert Tim Blackmore said of the game.

Players use their phone’s GPS capability to find and capture virtual creatures that appear on their smartphone’s screen. Though Pokemon Go’s popularity has faded, and game-related stories have largely disappeared from the news, there’s still dedicated players chasing monsters.

“It’s sort of one of those weird things that comes along with very fast moving, replaceable popular culture, where the fads burn out very quickly,” Blackmore said of the game’s decline, adding the remaining players are hard-core fans or late adopters.

The Facebook group that Li shared his story with has more than 3,100 members, many of whom regularly post about experiences playing in London

Li isn’t the city’s first Pokemon Go player to be robbed while gaming.

Police have received robbery reports from people who were playing cellphone games, including Pokemon Go, this year, Bough said.

“They’re not paying attention to their surroundings,” she said of the players being targeted. “They’re looking down at their cellphone.”

Police released descriptions of the suspects in Monday’s robbery. One is a black male with a slim build, between 15-17, 6’1”. He was wearing a toque and dark-coloured clothing. The other four are described only as males between 15-17 years old.

Li, a fourth-year business student, said he lost a lot of school work that was stored on his phone.

“That was the most expensive pack of noodles of my life,” he joked.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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