10 of the Craziest Pokemon Go Stories

The Pokemon Go trend is finally starting to die down a little, so it's a perfect time to collect the strangest stories that have come out in the last few months. Here are some of the ten craziest stories we've come across.

1. Pokemon In the Real World?

Sure, Pokemon Go might be an augmented reality game, but that doesn't stop some people from believing the creatures really are hiding just out of view in the real world. In fact, many pet owners around the globe believe their pets can see the creatures and they've been posting photographic proof to sell their point.

As if that wasn't weird enough, one woman in Moscow claims she was sexually assaulted by a Pokemon. Her report doesn't specify which creature was involved in the assault, but it doesn't matter much since police told her to see a psychiatrist rather than putting an APB out for an augmented reality rapist.

2. Play At Your Own Risk

When you play Pokemon Go, you're warned to pay attention to your surroundings, but that wasn't enough to stop two players in San Diego to ignore trespassing signs and walk right off a cliff in search of Pokemon. While they both survived injuries, the two did make it out alive.

Of course, falling off a cliff is nothing compared to walking over a landmine -which is such a real concern in Bosnia that the government actually issued a warning for players to make sure they don't wander into any minefields, since most of these areas still contain live munitions.

3. The Guy Who Kept Playing Even After Being Stabbed

A guy playing Pokemon Go in Forest Grove, OR was stabbed by someone passing by, but he refused to let that stop him from catching more Pokemon. Instead, he kept playing, walked to a convenience store and bought chips and beer before seeking medical attention. When police arrived on the scene, he even refused treatment so he could keep playing. Eventually, he did go to a hospital, where he confessed, “It’s important to me. I’ve got to basically catch them all."

4. The Driver Who Crashed into a Cop Car While Playing

Studies have said that texting while driving is at least as dangerous as drunk driving, so I'm pretty sure driving while playing Pokemon Go is even more risky. The fact that so many people have gotten into car crashes while playing is pretty good evidence, but one story particularly stands out in the realm of Pokemoning and driving -the guy who ran into a parked cop car while playing. The whole incident was caught on camera and quickly shared online -including the part where the driver says, "that's what I get for playing this dumbass game."

5. The Time Pokemon Fans Ruined a Science Experiment

When you're looking for Pokemon, you shouldn't be searching for real-world goodies as it's an augmented reality game. But when players in Isla Vista, CA saw something floating in the ocean that just happened to look like a Pokeball, they decided it must just be something related to their game. So they swam through the waves and brought it to the shore -only to discover it was actually a scientific instrument used to  track kelp. It was enough for the institute monitoring the buoys to issue a plea for people to “Please stop taking our drifters from the ocean!”

6. Rikers Island is Home to Tons of Rare Pokemon

Most people only visit Rikers Island if they're sent to prison -and catching Pokemon isn't something they can do while serving time. But according to the guards who work there, the prison island is actually a haven for rare Pokemon. Unfortunately, they like to hang out in areas of the prison that are inaccessible to the public -even the guards have a hard time catching them all since they are obviously not allowed to wander the prison playing Pokemon Go while at work.

7. The Westboro Baptist Church's Battle Against Love

If you've been on the internet for more than a week, you've probably been exposed to the hate-fueled group that is the Westboro Baptist Church. When Pokemon Go launched, the headquarters of Westboro just happened to be a gym and it wasn't long before someone took over the gym with a Clefairy named LoveIsLove. Soon enough, Westboro fought back with a Jigglypuff, even posting tweets featuring a Jigglypuff carrying their signs and the message "We recruited Jigglypuff to deal with the sodomite loveislove Clefairy for us." That's right, the battle of homophobia versus acceptance was being fought in a Pokemon gym. We live in a strange world.

8. The Players that Broke Into a Zoo to Play

Catching all the Pokemon is pretty cool, but it's still not worth going to jail for. Of course, that didn't stop two players from breaking in to the Toledo Zoo, "There are so many stops in there, and so many Pokemon," one of them said. "We'd been wanting to go there for like a week now, and we thought, 'let's just go in there, what do we have to lose?'" As for why they didn't just go in during the day like normal humans, he didn't say, but at least they left the animals and their exhibits alone. The two were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing, and are now banned from the zoo as well.

9. The Zookeeper That Used Pokemon Go to Bring Attention to Real Animals

Pokemon Go might be encouraging people to visit places like zoos (hopefully legally), but that doesn't mean they're actually paying attention to the places they're going. To help attract the attention of Pokemon-obsessed youngsters, one zookeeper at the Birmingham Zoo in Atlanta decided to put out signs for the animals inspired by the style of Pokemon Go. Hopefully this will get people interested in the natural world while they seek out characters in an augmented one.

10. The College Offering a Pokemon Go Class

There are a lot of weird college courses out there, but the academic world was notably Pokemon Go free -until July when the University of Idaho announced their intention to launch a Pop Culture Video Games course that counts as a PE class by focusing on games that get people to move, like Pokemon Go and Humans Vs. Zombies.

Now it's your turn. I'm sure most of you don't have stories this crazy, but have you seen someone do anything wacky while playing or caught yourself acting really stupid just to catch a Pikachu?