NYPD Officers Catch Wild Pikachu at Queens Pokestop

What to Know

  • Video posted to Snapchat shows four NYPD officers playing Pokemon Go in Far Rockaway.
  • Pokemon Go is a game played on smartphones, which allows users to encounter Pokemon characters based on where they are in the real world.
  • The NYPD and police departments across the country have warned the public about playing the game while driving, crossing streets and biking.

Four uniformed NYPD officers were recorded appearing to keep the streets of Queens safe from Pikachus and other pocket monsters, video posted to Snapchat shows.

Zoli Honig recorded the officers with their heads buried in their smartphones at a Far Rockaway "pokestop" near the boardwalk at Beach 9th Street Wednesday morning, he told NBC 4 New York.

Police said the officers were on a temporary patrol after a number of reports of kids throwing rocks and damaging cars at the location.

"That my friends, is the NYPD collecting Pokemon," Honig says as he zooms in on the four officers.

"There's a wild Pikachu, have you seen him," Honig called out to the cops, the video shows.

"I caught it already," one policeman responded.

More police then arrive, the video shows. Honig assumed the arriving officers were there to play the game, as he says on the video, but police say it was part of a routine inspection done every day.  

Honig told NBC 4 New York he then spoke to the officers about the benefits of how the real world is used during gameplay.

"We were talking about the social component about it, and how that helped it get so viral," Honig said. "And how it's the first game to actually get people out of the house and to talk to other people."

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