Rare Pokemon Sparks Stampede in Central Park

In a scene more fitting of an A-list celebrity sighting or a cut clip from a disaster movie, hundreds of "Pokemon Go" players ran through Central Park late last week in hopes of catching a particularly rare digital monster. 

Video showed players yelling and running through traffic -- one even gets out of the driver's seat of his running car -- as they attempted to catch the Pokemon in near 60th Street at about 11 p.m. on Thursday. 

The critter at question was a Vaporeon, a rare water-type evolution of a much more pedestrian Eevee. 

The sight drew guffaws from some in the park, including the man who captured the scene. 

"Look at this! There's a Vaporeon that spawned right there so everyone's running," said one man, whose comments were met with laughter.

NBC 4 New York has reached out to the NYPD for comment on occurance. NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton has likened those who play the game to "zombies."

It's not the first Pokemon-spurred oddity in the tri-state since the game launched a little more than a week ago. A man fell into a pond at Prospect Park while trying to catch a lowly Rattata, while a teen on Long Island was targeted by thieves. Players in Connecticut, meanwhile, found a naked woman in a churchyard

Celebrities have also gotten in on the trend: DNAinfo reports that Justin Bieber was spotted trying to catch 'em all in Manhattan's Inwood neighborhood over the weekend. 

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