Around Town: Robbery worries with a cocktail chaser
As the most downloaded phone app in history, with more than $200 million in revenue in one month, Pokemon Go has generated dozens of articles analyzing the game in Forbes, Wall Street Journal and other financial publications.
The game is suspected in robberies around the Southland. Here’s how it works.
The goal of the game is to catch different Pokemon characters. The game uses a mapping overlay from an older augmented reality game called Ingress. The users of Ingress had submitted map locations to the game company. That’s why Doña Maria’s in La Cañada is a Pokemon Go hotspot.
There are two types of hotspots on the Pokemon map. Doña Maria’s is a Pokestop, a location where the characters tend to gather. Users can purchase a virtual lure and place it at any nearby Pokestop. The lure is visible on the map to other players.
Police agencies are concerned that criminals will place a lure at an isolated Pokestop in the wee hours, in order to attract players. For example, if your 15-year-old is up at 2 a.m. trying to play Pokemon Go, she or he might look at the map and notice some free lures over at Mayors’ Discovery Park or one of the churches. They might text a friend, sneak out of the house, and go over to the lure. That’s the risk.
The other type of hotspot is a Poke Gym, where players try to strengthen their Pokemon characters. A player must be within 40 feet of the gym in order to use it. Activity in the gym is visible on the map as lightning bolts above the location.
Here in La Cañada, most of the hotspots are on Foothill Boulevard, but several back up to residential neighborhoods. If you live near Glenhaven Park, which is surrounded by houses, do you really want people arriving in the middle of the night to play the game?
As always, Around Town has a solution. Five solutions, in fact.
La Cañada needs Poke policing. Our deputies should download the game onto their mobile phones. If they see map activity at 3 a.m. in isolated Pokemon Go hotspot, a quick drive-by might be prudent.
The other four solutions are more liquid, courtesy of Skippy, the bartender at the Flintridge Proper. Skippy said it’s OK to share these cocktail recipes, but he’ll also make them up for you at the restaurant.
Pickachu
3/4 ounce lemon juice
3/4 ounce lemon grass syrup
2 ounce gin
Muddle Serrano
Double strain and garnish with a twist of lemon.
Squirtle
3/4 ounce lemon juice
3/4 ounce simple syrup
1/4 ounce violette
2 ounce gin
Borage flower garnish.
Charmander
Set up shaker with:
3/4 ounce lemon juice
3/4 ounce honey
1/4 ounce Aperol
1.5 ounce rye
Wash glass with 100 proof, sprinkle with cinnamon and flame. The cinnamon pops and burns. Shake and strain into glass.
Garnish with dry red chili pepper.
Bulbasaur
3/4 ounce lime
3/4 ounce simple syrup
2 ounce gin
muddled basil
Double strain into glass.
Garnish with basil.
This is the last of the three-part Pokemon Go series. Next week: Around Town’s Back-to-School edition!
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ANITA SUSAN BRENNER is a longtime La Cañada Flintridge resident and an attorney with Law Offices of Torres and Brenner in Pasadena. Contact her at anitasusan.brenner@yahoo.com. Follow her on Instagram @realanitabrenner, Facebook and on Twitter @anitabrenner.