"Pokemon Go" leads players to California sex offender home
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- The addictive cellphone game "Pokemon Go" has led people to unlikely places to collect digital monsters - including the gates of a central California ranch that houses alcoholics and sex offenders.
The location-based game has a "Pokestop" at the outdoor sign for Sunny Acres, a 72-acre ranch in San Luis Obispo that includes a sober-living facility where 35 people live, KSBY-TV reported Tuesday.
"We have some criminals, we have some alcoholics, we have drug addicts, we have mentally ill, there are some sex offenders, yes," Sunny Acres founder Dan De Vaul told the station.
An Associated Press call seeking comment from De Vaul was not immediately returned Wednesday.
But De Vaul, 72, told the Los Angeles Times that he was upset.
"I have no idea what Pokemon is," he said. "I have no idea who put the stop - if it was sabotage - because we don't want kids showing up here."
If children visit the property, some sex offenders living there might be placed at risk of being sent back to prison for violating conditions of their probation or parole, De Vaul said.
"Pokemon Go" is an augmented-reality game that makes digital monsters of various kinds pop up on players' cellphones along routes where they are walking or driving. The object is to "catch" the beasts. Some places are designated as "Pokestops," where players can stock up on digital items, and "gyms" where the collected monsters can be used in digital battles.
Using digitized maps, gamers can see the location of monsters, Pokestops and gyms as far as a few blocks away.
It was not immediately clear how "Pokemon Go" developer Niantic Inc. chose the locations.
An email seeking comment from the company about the Sunny Acres location was not immediately returned.
In Indiana, one "Pokestop" has already been linked to an arrest. A registered sex offender was arrested Wednesday for playing Pokémon Go with children outside a courthouse, reports CBS affiliate WTTV.
The Hancock County Courthouse in Greenfield, Indiana, has become a popular "Pokestop," the station reports. At the courthouse, a probation officer spotted Randy Zuick, 42, playing the game with a 16-year-old boy, according to police.
Playing with the teen violated the terms of a plea agreement struck with Zuick three months ago in a child molestation case. He pleaded guilty to a felony charge of child molesting for fondling a child under 14 and remains on sex-offender probation, which prohibits him from interacting with children, court records say.
Zuick will likely face a judge Thursday, who will decide whether to revoke his probation and send him back to jail.