A 28-year-old man jumped the White House fence Sunday morning at 10:23 am in search of a rare Pokemon GO creature. In the process, secret service shot him when he disobeyed orders to drop to the ground. The man’s identification is being withheld until his family can be notified about the incident.
The new Pokemon GO app has taken the country by storm with millions of players running around cities and towns in search of creature to battle and collect. Several tragic accidents have occurred while playing the game. The players focus on their phones distract them from real life situations. “It’s even more distracting than texting,” said TechCrunch writer, Susan Thompson. “There have been more Pokemon Go downloads than Tinder and use time is higher than Twitter and Facebook.”
A secret service member told the Washington Post, “We warned him ten times but he seemed to be in a trance looking at his phone. We didn’t know if the phone was a bomb trigger or what. So, he left us no option.”
The man will be charged will trespassing on private property.
White House spokesman Tim Clancy told reporters, “We are talking to Nintendo to create more ?off limits’ areas for Pokemon, so these incidents don’t happen again.”
President Obama said, “There was no security threat here. It wasn’t related to ISIS. It was just a man addicted to a video game who had tunnel vision and ignored the secret services orders. Our prayers go to the man and his family as he recovers in a hospital.
“It’s not a good time to jump the White House fence folks, no matter how rare the Pokemon.”
Michelle Obama said, “While the circumstances were not ideal, it was good to see Americans getting some exercise. You have to be fit to be able to climb a fence. Just next time, pick a different fence.”
