GOOCHLAND, Va. (AP) - Searching for Pokemon on a popular new smartphone game is not a valid excuse for trespassing.
That's the warning from a central Virginia sheriff's office. In a post on its official Facebook page, the Goochland Sheriff's Office links a rise in reports of trespassing and suspicious activity over the weekend to Thursday's release of the popular Pokemon Go game.
The "augmented reality" game encourages players to wander in the physical world to find and catch new Pokemon on their screens.
Deputies say they have found people on business, church, and government properties late at night when the grounds are closed.
Authorities say those actions constitute trespassing and put both members of the public and law enforcement officers at risk.
In other cases, Pokemon users have helped authorities do their jobs.
Authorities in central Wyoming are investigating after a woman playing the popular smartphone game Pokemon Go found a man's body in a river.
Shayla Wiggens told the Riverton Ranger newspaper that she spotted the body in the Wind River near the city of Riverton on Friday while playing the new game.
Fremont County Undersheriff Ryan Lee says the death appears to be accidental and possibly a drowning. He says evidence indicates the man went into the water where he was found.
The victim hasn't been identified pending an autopsy. Lee says the FBI is helping in the investigation.
It comes as police in Missouri say four teens used Pokemon Go to lure victims to a location and rob them.
Police said Sunday that four teens used the game to draw victims to a spot in O'Fallon, just outside of St. Louis, and then robbed them.
Police say the robbers used the game to lure victims by putting a "beacon" at a location to draw in players.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports police arrested the four teens after responding to a call for a robbery near a gas station Sunday. The suspects are between the ages of 16 and 18.
Police said the suspects may have been involved in similar robberies around St. Louis.