Sefton Police crews were in for a nice surprise when, last october 7they intercepted a van filled with illegal substances, many of which contained a rather unusual inscription: “Pokémon GO”.
Illegal Pokémon GO products?
This is what the police discovered in Sefton, a small town in the west of England, between Manchester and Liverpool. When an individual in a van did not stop, a mad chase started. After managing to intercept the van but not the bandits, the police opened it to discover pounds of illicit substanceswith inscriptions “Pokémon GO”, or “KFC”.
No doubt a technique used by the bandits to pass the goods off as Pokémon goodies, or to try to sell their goods more easily… in vain. Criminals still risk a lot to have exploited the intellectual property of Nintendo, Niantic and The Pokémon Company (of course) without their permission.
“Pokémon GO” merchandise found in suspect’s house
Sefton Police teams appear to have had a good sense of the matter as they fairly quickly followed a suspect’s trail… to his home where they found £20,000 of Class B goods, £5000 in cash, but also all kinds of products clearly incriminating the man.
He was therefore arrested for refusing to comply, dangerous driving, possession of Class “B” drugs, suspected possession of illicit goods with intent to supply, possession of criminal property, and possession of an offensive weapon.
Here is a rather unusual story, which however ends rather well with the arrest of the criminal in question. In any case, we weren’t ready to hear about illicit products inscribed “Pokémon GO”, so strong is the contrast with the family and innocent image of the license. This will surprise all fans of Nintendo’s flagship license!