BOSTON — A man in Massachusetts is making the best of an awkward situation after his house was mistakenly set as a Pokémon Go “Poke Stop.”
Boon Sheridan and his wife live in an old church, and his home was set as a Pokémon Go gym — that’s where players can go to train and learn how to fight Pokémon.
Since the app launched, dozens of people at a time have been showing up at his house and milling about, playing the game at all hours of the night.
Living in an old church means many things. Today it means my house is a Pokémon Go gym. This should be fascinating.
— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) July 9, 2016
This is what I'm a little leery of. People pulled up, blocking my drive way as they sit on their phones. pic.twitter.com/WpRbilk6g6
— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) July 10, 2016
Sheridan has tried to get the location of the gym changed, but as of now you can only report a “Poke Stop” location if it poses physical danger to the players.
Meanwhile, Sheridan is documenting the entire situation on his Twitter account @boonerang and he seems to be having fun with it despite the annoyance. He even met the owner of the “gym” in the game.
Woohoo! I met the owner of my gym. Nice guy. pic.twitter.com/uujdC3JYbA
— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) July 10, 2016
Until the gym location changed, Sheridan has to deal with all the people and their cars showing up at all hours.
I was half-joking if a gym adds value to a property, but a virtual location could seriously impact quality of life for a spot.
— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) July 10, 2016
The Pokémon Go game has exploded since it launched in the past week. It has almost as many daily active users as Twitter.
Among players, it’s being used for an average of 43 minutes, 23 seconds a day. That’s higher than Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger.