9-year-old Pokemaniac tries to come to Mumbai from Howrah to ‘catch-em all’

A nine-year-old boy left his home in Howrah to travel to Mumbai on Saturday after being told that he could find more ‘Pokemons’ in the maximum city.

The kid, a die-hard fan of the newly released viral mobile game ‘Pokemon Go’, spent a majority of his free time catching the virtual creatures.

The free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game has become a worldwide phenomenon since its release this month. The game allows users to capture, train and fight virtual creatures, called Pokémon.

The Class III student reportedly left his house on Saturday evening and told his mother that he was visiting a friend’s place. Since his friend’s house was very close to their residence, she allowed him to go. His father, an Army jawan, wasn’t home at the time.

After the kid failed to return home by 9 pm, the mother started getting worried. She first visited his friend’s place, only to discover that he never arrived there. In a state of panic, she approached Howrah police station.

The officer-in-charge, Tathagata Pandey, heard the complaint and sent teams to look for the boy. He also alerted the Howrah Government Railway Police (GRP).

Around 1 am, a GRP official saw a young kid wandering at the station, holding a phone in hand. When the official question what he was doing at the station, he said that he was waiting for a train to travel to Mumbai.

The boy told the official that he wanted to travel to Mumbai as he could find more Pokemons there.

The official informed the Howrah police, who asked her mother to visit the station and identify him. The mother identified him and took him home. She later told officials that her son was addicted to the game and often wandered around the area to search and catch Pokemons.