Pokemon Go Latest: Nintendo Stock Tanks, Cops Pull Guns, Traffic Grinds to Halt, and More

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By Jacob Bogage, Travis M. Andrews, The Washington Post | Updated: 26 July 2016 12:33 IST
In response to the ubiquity of Pokemon Go, investors immediately began snatching up Nintendo stock like, well, Pokemon, likely because the company is most closely associated with the game from its original conception as a cartridge game for Game Boy.

Since July 6, when the game was released in New Zealand and Australia, Nintendo's stock jumped an, astounding 63.7 percent, adding about $11 billion (roughly Rs. 74,094 crores) to the company's value, Quartz reported.

In fact, just last Thursday, Ben Collett, head of Asian equities at Sunrise Brokers LLP in Hong Kong, told CNBC that Nintendo's stocks were an attractive buy.

(Also see:  Pokemon Go No Longer Working in Parts of India, Reddit Users Complain)

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"Nintendo's going to keep going [up], not just because of the Pokemon Go, but because of the whole book they have of characters, and extras," Collett said.

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As it turns out, that might not be the case. But Nintendo only has about a 32 percent stake in Pokemon Co., Reuters reported.

Likely not wanting to face mobs of angry Pokemon Go players with several Charizards in their collective back pocket, Nintendo released a statement informing investors of this fact.

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In response, Nintendo's stock immediately plummeted. When the market in Japan closed on Monday, the company's stock was down 17 percent, or about $6.7 billion.

It was the most dramatic stock price drop Nintendo has experienced since 1990, Bloomberg reported.

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(Also see:  This Pokemon Go Map Will Show You Every Pokemon Location)

Oblivious Canadian teens follow Pokemon Go across border
Montana is full of sprawling wilderness untouched by man, a place where animals can thrive in bucolic splendor.

And of course, there are Pokemon in Montana, too.

(Also see: Pokemon Go iOS: How to Download Pokemon Go for iPhone, iPad)

Two Canadian teens wandered across the Alberta-Montana border, US Border Patrol revealed this weekend, while playing Go. So transfixed were the teens in attempting to capture these fictional critters, they had no idea they crossed an international boundary.

Border Patrol agents apprehended the pair, and they were reunited with their mother on the other side of border.

He really caught them all
A Brooklyn man claims he captured all 142 Pokemon available in the United States. Mind you, Pokemon Go only came out 19 days ago. That means he caught more than seven Pokemon on average each day.

Nick Johnson, 28, reports CNN, said he spent between six and 10 hours each night walking the streets of New York looking for Pokemon. Some nights his girlfriend, also a Pokemon fan, joined him. Some nights she didn't. Regardless, this hero pressed on.

(Also see: How to Download Pokemon Go APK, Install, and Play on Android)

"You want to catch 'em all and become a Pokemon master, [it's] the childhood dream, but it never really occurred to me I might be the first one to do it until I got pretty close," Johnson said.

There are three Pokemon he hasn't captured yet, though, but they live outside the United States. Fear not: Marriot Rewards offered to partner with Johnson so he can finish off his journey.

Queen Bey or Pokemon?
If you spurn Beyonce for Pokemon Go, the Bey Hive will apparently come after you.

A young woman during a Beyoncé concert at the Stade de France played Pokemon Go, something to which a gentleman behind her took umbrage. He posted video to Instagram - language used in said video is not fit to print - to shame the other concert goer, who apparently does not love Beyonce enough, never mind that she's literally two feet from the stage.

(Also see: How to Play Pokemon Go in India? Here's Everything You Need to Know)

It seems like the video narrator is pretty irked, insulted even. And then Beyoncé walks by and contemplates touching his hand, and he loses any semblance of cool.

Australian Poke-Mecca
A wall of humans has started to descend each night on Peg Paterson Park in Rhodes, Australia, a Sydney suburb.

They are there for the PokeStops, points of interests where the fictional animals gather and players can lure them in. But there are three PokeStops at this park, and the crush of humanity that's crowding around them has begun to stop traffic on adjacent streets.

(Also see:  Pokemon Go Financial Impact Will Be Limited, Says Nintendo; Stock Crashes)

Officials in Rhodes have asked Niantic, the company that makes the app, to get rid of two of the PokeStops, according to Australian news site Domain.com.

So far, that hasn't happened, and it's starting to have serious consequences. The choked roads delayed a fire engine from reaching its destination, officials say.

Not funny in Iowa City
Faith Ekakitie, a football player at the University of Iowa, was stopped by police with guns drawn while playing Pokemon Go in a park in Iowa City.

He posted a detailed and emotional account of the encounter on Facebook .

Police were searching for a large black man dressed in all black suspected of robbing a bank. Ekakitie, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 290 pounds, was also wearing all black, but had not robbed a bank. He was playing Pokemon Go.

(Also see: Pokemon Go to Get Customisable PokeStops, New Tradable Pokemon)

When police called out to him to turn around and show his hands, he did not respond, because he did not hear them. He was using earphones while playing the game. So officers drew their weapons, approached him and conducted a search.

"My pockets were checked, my backpack was opened up and searched carefully, and I was asked to lift up my shirt while they searched my waistband," he wrote. "Not once did they identify themselves to me as Iowa City Police officers, but with four gun barrels staring me in the face, I wouldn't dare question the authority of the men and woman in front of me. This is what happened from my point of view."

(Also see:  Pokemon Go Players Stumble on Hidden History)

But from the officers' perspective, he continued, "all they knew was that a bank had just been robbed less than ten minutes ago. The suspect was a large black male, wearing all black, with something on top of his head and the suspect is armed."

The misunderstanding, if not handled properly, he added could have led to him becoming "another statistic" of a black man shot by police. Instead, he thanked police for "handling a sensitive situation very professionally."

© 2016 The Washington Post

 

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