A group of children playing Pokémon Go in west suburban Riverside on Wednesday got a warning from the village’s police chief when they got too close to the Des Plaines River.
A group of eight boys between the ages of 10-13 were playing on their phones about 8 a.m. at the edge of the river near the Riverside police station, according to Police Chief Tom Weitzel. When he pulled into his police station parking spot, he noticed that two of the children were in the water about 10 feet from shore.
Weitzel approached the group and learned they were playing Pokémon Go, a free augmented reality, location-based game for Android and Apple smartphones, he said.
The boys told him they were in the water because the game was taking them across the river to an area of incorporated Riverside south of the police station, he said. The boys were only in the water to just below their knees. None were injured.
The boys were non-Riverside residents, but from nearby Brookfield and Lyons who had followed the game to the Des Plaines River in the village, he said. They were told to take their fun instead to the village’s parks.
