After the uber-popular Pokémon Go mobile game sent gamers of all ages scurrying about collecting cartoon creatures around the world, some homeowners, including one Alberta woman, find that the game is no fun at all.
Barbara Schaeffer, who lives in Torrington, a hamlet just over an hour northeast of Calgary, says that the peace around her home has been shattered, all because of her property’s newfound virtual status.
In Pokémon Go, players walk the streets, travelling to different destinations to collect items from PokéStops all while capturing the odd Pikachu or Bulbasaur along the way.
Players can also visit fictional gyms along their journey to do battle with other players and their own teams of Pokémon.
While some of those locations are quite literally gyms, others are linked to other buildings, such as Schaeffer’s home.
“We found out around the middle of July when the game first came out that our home is a ‘gym’ and that’s more significant than the regular Pokémon stop.”
She says that the game is causing players to loiter around her home; something she finds is an invasion of privacy.
“To catch the character, it’s not as simple as drive by, point and shoot and go on and there you have it. It’s more of an effort, you have to want it. You have to play with your phone a bit more. When people come to get the character, they want it because it is a certain number of points.”
The issue has gotten so bad, Schaeffer says, that bylaw officers from the county came to her home to say they’ve gotten complaints that her dogs were barking too much and were causing a disturbance.
“I explained to her that it was Pokémon and even she was like, ‘not sure how to approach that’.”
Last week was the final straw, when Schaeffer spotted a drone above her yard.
“Somebody flew a drone into our yard to play the game. My husband was out back renovating and, at first, he didn’t even comprehend what it was, but the dogs were losing their patience. He looks up and sure enough someone was parked out here and they flew a drone in to play the game. That’s really not right.”
Schaeffer made contact with Niantic Inc., the San Francisco-based company that made the game, in order to notify them about the situation and take steps to remove her home from the game’s servers.
There is a feature that allows users to do just that, but Schaeffer says she hasn’t had any response from the company in the 11 days since she notified them.
At that point, Schaeffer didn’t know what else to do until she heard about a similar situation south of the border where a homeowner was pursuing legal action against Niantic to resolve his problem.
“It was exactly like us. It caught my ear; he’s a home, he doesn’t like the disruption, he doesn’t like the lack of privacy and he’s a gym.”
She then acquired the services of lawyer Clint Docken, a counsel to D’Arcy & Deacon LLP, who specializes in municipal law in western Canada.
“Our client came to us last week,” explained Docken. “She had experienced all of these intruders on her property and discovered it was in relation to the Pokémon Go game.
“She was in touch with the company, asked them to delist her home as a gym. She didn’t get any response and out of frustration came to us.”
Docken says they are now in the process of pursuing a lawsuit against the company and that there have been "a lot of other victims."
On Thursday, Docken also confirmed that his client heard from Niantic and was told that the 'gym' designation was removed.
(With files from CTV Calgary's Bill Macfarlane)
