BERKELEY (KRON) — Three recent robberies in Berkeley have been linked to the popular Pokemon Go game.
Within the last month, two people have been robbed and another person was almost robbed while playing the game on Monday.
One robbery lead to the arrest of two suspects.
The first incident happened when police responded to reports of a woman screaming on the 2300 block of Dana Street on July 12 around 9:15 p.m. An officer was able to find the woman on Durant Avenue when she just finished playing the popular game.
The woman said she was walking through a parking lot when she noticed two suspects were following her. One of them knocked her to the ground and tried to take her phone. The other pulled her purse off her shoulder.
The two suspects left the scene in an SUV. They have been described as two “baby-faced” black men with slender builds wearing dark-colored sweatshirts.
The second robbery happened on July 31 around 2:46 p.m. in the area of Parker and Warning Streets. A suspect jumped out of a car and punched the victim and stole his cell phone.
The suspect in that case is described as a 16-year-old man wearing a blue sweatshirt. He ran into a waiting car on Warring Street. The suspected car stopped a few blocks away and police made two arrests.
The attempted robbery happened on Monday around 5:30 p.m. in Civic Center Park on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. A man was in the park playing the game when someone tried stealing his phone. The victim wrestled with the suspect, but was able to get his phone back.
The suspect has been described as a black man between 15 to 16 years old wearing a gray sweatshirt with black and white Air Jordan sneakers. The suspect left the scene on Allston Way.
Berkeley police has these tips to avoid getting robbed:
· Leave your smart phones in a pocket until you get where you are going
· If you intend on playing the game at night, consider doing so with a group of friends
If you have any information about any of these cases, you are asked to contact Berkeley police at (510) 981-5900.