Cemetery Removed From Pokemon Go After Police Repeatedly Chase Players From Graveyard

NOVI (WWJ) - Novi police have solved a problem after Pokemon Go players were trying to "catch them all" at the city's largest cemetery.

Police Chief David Molloy said scores of people playing the wildly popular virtual game ended up at the Oakland Hills Memorial Gardens Cemetery, at 12 Mile and Novi roads, on a daily basis.

"During the day when family member, grieving individuals, were showing up to visit grave sites, we would have several people playing the Pokemon Go game and they were disrupting the peace and serenity of the cemetery," Molloy told WWJ's Beth Fisher.

The cemetery posted a sign warning players to be respectful, but things got even worse when the sun went down and players started coming out in the dozens.

"After hours at night, after 9 p.m. and after dark, we'd have multiple people, sometimes as many as 45 or 50, throughout the cemetery -- which does violate a local ordinance," said Molloy. "And we used a great deal of discretion and warned every single one of them. No one was cited for being inside the cemetery."

Police knew they had to do something -- they couldn't keep spending their nights chasing Pokemon catchers out of the cemetery. That's when one of the players told police they could request to have the cemetery removed from the game.

"An officer took the initiative as part of a community policing strategy and asked for it to be removed and it since has been," said Molloy.

Although the cemetery is no longer a Poke-stop, the game is still causing some minor problems.

"We did have a few incidents of individuals crossing roads on bicycles obviously looking at their phones," said Molloy. "We haven't had any injuries or accidents reported but it's a good reminder to always be aware of your surroundings and always use caution whenever crossing a street, whether there's Pokemon there or not."

Meantime, a New Jersey homeowner filed the first lawsuit against the makers of Pokemon Go for allegedly creating a nuisance. The man is seeking class-action status on behalf of all Americans whose properties have been trespassed by wayward monster finders.