Joseph Luster
January 11, 2022 
Thanks to a recently published court document, we know that a pair of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers were fired for a handful of reasons, primarily centered on playing Pokémon GO on the job. Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were being investigated for a 2017 incident in which they ignored a commanding officer’s request to assist in the handling of a robbery, and have since been fired as a result.
The robbery was going down at a local Macy’s, but the officers opted instead to leave the area to play Pokémon GO and attempt to capture Snorlaxes and Togetics. While they initially denied these accusations, dash cam footage caught them in action. Lozano and Mitchell’s reps then filed a petition to appeal the subsequent decision to fire them both.
The appeal was denied on January 7. If you’re wondering what that exactly that dash cam footage captured, the appeal offers a slice of what happened on the day in question:
For approximately the next 20 minutes, the DICVS captured petitioners discussing Pokémon as they drove to different locations where the virtual creatures apparently appeared on their mobile phones. On their way to the Snorlax location, Officer Mitchell alerted Officer Lozano that “a Togetic just popped up,” noting it was “[o]n Crenshaw, just South of 50th.” After Mitchell apparently caught the Snorlax—exclaiming, “Got ‘em”—petitioners agreed to “[g]o get the Togetic” and drove off. When their car stopped again, the DICVS recorded Mitchell saying, “Don’t run away. Don’t run away,” while Lozano described how he “buried it and ultra-balled” the Togetic before announcing, “Got him.” Mitchell advised he was “[s]till trying to catch it,” adding, “Holy crap, man. This thing is fighting the crap out of me.” Eventually Mitchell exclaimed, “Holy Crap. Finally,” apparently in reference to capturing the Togetic, and he remarked, “The[ ] guys are going to be so jealous.” Petitioners then agreed to return to the 7-Eleven (where Sergeant Gomez later met them) to end their watch. On the way, Mitchell remarked, “I got you a new Pokémon today, dude.”
Lozano and Mitchell were beat cops with a combined 28 years on the job. Hopefully those new Pokémon were worth it.
Via Kotaku
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