A 43-year-old man who goes by RickeyBot in the game was livestreaming his game play around 2:00 AM on Central Park South and Sixth Avenue, when he was punched in the face.
— rickeybot (@rickeybot) September 19, 2016
“Scan on jaw was negative, so just swollen for a few days. Bump on head was from hitting the pavement and blood was from scratch on elbow,” RickeyBot tweeted.
His attacker snuck up on him and struck him, causing him to fall to the ground. The attacker can be seen standing over him as RickeyBot pleads with him to stop. The robber ran off with the three smartphones RickeyBot was holding.
Last month, a 20-year-old college student was shot and killed while playing Pokémon GO in San Francisco.
Calvin Riley, of San Mateo, was searching for the game monsters with a large group of friends at Aquatic Park in Fisherman’s Wharf when he was fatally shot.
Pokémon GO mixes a virtual world with reality as players search real world locations for cartoon figures. A feature of the game raising concern is that users can place a “lure” on a PokéStop to entice other players to the area with the promise of Pokémon present.
The feature has been used to lure players to remote areas where they have been robbed at gunpoint in both Missouri and London.
