‘Pokemon GO’: Man Falls Dead After Catching Rare Pokemon Lapras

Rare Pokemon GO monster caused a man’s death last week, after he caught a hard-to-find Pokemon GO ice-type character called Lapras. The 67-year-old man from Singapore, Asia One reports, was an experienced level 28 Pokemon Go player, having captured 200 different characters before his untimely death. The man was out hunting Pokemon when he apparently suffered a heart attack.

According to the man’s wife, earlier that day the two had met with other family members for a meal and a birthday celebration. Following the meal, the man stopped at home to change his clothes and then went out to hunt for Pokemon near the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore.

Judging by the GPS information on the deceased’s phone, later investigated by the Singapore Civil Defence Force, the man managed to catch a rare Pokemon GO named Lapras. He then also found a second generation monster, recently released in one of the game’s latest updates, called Granbull. Shortly after catching the two rare Pokemon, the man collapsed and was taken by paramedics to the Singapore General Hospital, where he died shortly after he arrived.

“There was a sudden call from the hospital after 6pm,” the man’s wife recalled, adding that her husband had a history of cardiac problems, so she immediately suspected a heart problem when she received the call.

“They (The medical staff) told us to come see him one last time. At that moment, I knew things were bad.”

Lapras is a rare Pokemon GO water/ice monster and one of the most powerful characters in the game. Lapras can only be found in very specific locations, and it is usually located next to bodies of water, which is consistent with the location where the Singaporean man was hunting. Finding such a rare Pokemon may have been the cause for the man’s heart attack, especially for someone with a history of heart issues.

Not The First Pokemon GO-Related Death

This unfortunate event in Singapore is just another one in a string of several deaths related to Pokemon GO that have been reported since the game’s launch. Since the game calls for players to wander around outside while looking at their smartphones, there are some potential risks. In addition, some hard-to-find Pokemon GO characters only exist in specific, rare locations, so players sometimes wonder off to places they shouldn’t be in.

Back in July of 2016, the Mirror reported about an 18-year-old boy, Jerson Lopez de Leon from Guatemala, who was shot dead after breaking into a house so he could catch a Pokemon there. The boy was playing with his 17-year-old cousin, who was also shot during the housebreaking and was badly injured.

In a similar case in Florida, at around the same time, two Pokemon GO players hunting for rare Pokemon were also shot by a house owner who mistakenly thought they were burglars.

In December of 2016, a 14-year-old boy from Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom who was playing Pokemon GO was seriously injured after he was hit by car, according to the Sun. The boy wasn’t looking in the direction of the car when it hit him and was smashed across the windshield.

John Siddle, of the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, said after the accident that the game can be dangerous if people aren’t being careful.

“There is no one to blame and the driver had no time to react. The game can be dangerous. People texting or using phone apps are very distracted and the most likely people to involved in a crash.”

In Japan, a 9-year-old boy was killed when a truck driver, who was playing Pokemon GO at the time, crashed into him. The driver was arrested at the scene, and the boy died two hours after the incident.

Whether you’re just playing casually or hunting for those rare Pokemon GO monsters, remember to be careful — it’s never worth it to lose your life over a game.

[Featured Image by Mike Coppola/Getty Images]