Zombies? Invasion? Nope. Just Pokémon hunters

The Evert sisters almost never go to the Tacoma Mall — yet Monday they wandered past its shops, chatting over their phones, hoping to catch a few Pokémon and maybe some sushi afterward.

At the Pokémon Center outside Uncle’s Games, Victoria Evert, 22, reached over gleefully to show her phone to her sister, Grace.

“I caught a Weedle,” she said.

The sisters were doing what countless South Sound residents and other users around the country and in Australia and Japan have been doing since Wednesday, when the mobile app Pokémon Go was released —and immediately captivated the internet.

“I see it everywhere,” said Grace Evert, 19. “It’s a good feeling. It brings people together.”

As with previous games, users track and capture diverse monsters called Pokémon, and then train them to fight other creatures.

In Pokemon Go, however, players must physically go outside to chase Pokémon.

The game syncs with the location of the user’s smartphone, and when a player encounters a Pokémon, it appears on the phone’s camera. The player then must swipe to throw a Pokeball to capture the Pokémon.

“It’s like geocaching with your phone,” Victoria Evert said.

‘PokeStops’ are seeded within the app, usually at public places like parks, malls, and local landmarks. What kind of Pokemon pops up is essentially random, although they may vary with the habitat.

The Pokeman Go app is free, but the appmaker makes money by selling in-app upgrades and other merchandise.

The game has been met with immense popularity, and Pierce County is no exception.

Several Facebook groups and events revolving around the game went live shortly after the game did, including a Poke Hike hosted by a group called Pokémon Go Nerd Workout Crew. They’ve invited Pokémon Go players on a hike Sunday through Point Defiance Park.

As of Monday afternoon, more than 800 people had RSVP’d as “going” and an additional 4,300 had RSVP’d as “interested.” With the event’s unexpected popularity, the group had put out a call for sponsors to help.

Tacoma City Council member Marty Campbell said he has been amazed by the popularity of the game.

“There are easily thousands of people who are engaged in this,” he said. “I went to Point Defiance this weekend, and there were people everywhere.”

There were rumors of a rare Charmander spawning along the park’s trails. Wapato Park, the Foss Waterway and Fircrest Park were among other hot spots for wandering seekers.

At the Tacoma Mall, a handful of people pored over their phones together at the tables around at the Pokémon Center. What looked like a father and son scrolled through the creatures they’d collected, and two groups of strangers huddled together to swap tips.

The Evert sisters said they appreciated the community they found through the game.

“It gives us something to do together,” Grace Evert said.

On Sunday, Kelsey Monaghan-Bergson of Fircrest celebrated her 13th birthday with enough Pokémon Go to fill, by her estimate, about four hours and 30,000 steps.

She has been playing Pokémon games for seven years, and said she loves that Pokémon Go stays true to the franchise — going out, walking around and meeting other players is an added bonus.

“I’ve been looking forward to it for a really long time,” the teen said. “The trailer came out eight months ago, and I’ve been researching it since.”

Her favorite fighting Pokémon? A Jolteon, a fox-like creature with electric abilities. She nicknamed him Sparky.

Tacoma Metro Parks Commissioner Erik Hanberg said he first heard of the app Friday, when a friend posted a complaint on social media that everyone in Tacoma’s bars were on their phones playing the game instead of talking to each other.

“But I think it’s great,” said Hanberg, who, after downloading the app, caught his first Pokémon, a flame-tailed Charmander, while waiting for Monday’s groundbreaking for the new Pacific Seas Aquarium at the Point Defiance Zoo. “I’m in favor of any technology that gets people into parks and public places.”

That worked with the Evert sisters.

“We’ve never gone to our neighborhood parks, or even known they existed,” Victoria Evert said.

Now, she said, she’s discovering things she never knew were there even at places she frequents. She said stumbling upon something she had never seen before only makes her more eager to explore.

Campbell said he likes the benefits of the dramatic increase in foot traffic.

“I see it drawing people to places that are a little off the beaten path,” the city councilman said. “I think it draws people into public spaces in ways they might not normally, getting people walking around and seeing these points of interest perhaps for the first time.”

Real-world dangers do accompany the search — Victoria Evert said she has to resist the temptation to check her phone while driving.

And not everyone knows what the game’s about.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department responded to a Pokémon Go-related incident about 10:30 p.m. Sunday. A caller reported a suspicious person in a vehicle in the parking lot outside a local business.

When deputies arrived, the “suspicious person” was playing Pokémon Go.

“People need to realize they can’t be trespassing on others’ property or be out late at night,” sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said. “Criminals will take advantage of you being out late at night and property owners may mistake you for something or someone else.”

On its Facebook page, Joint Base Lewis-McChord warned players on base to take basic safety precautions. They shouldn’t chase Pokémon into restricted areas or office and residential buildings and should pay attention when in parking lots and crossing roads.

Campbell said he hopes players will heed the warning the app gives to always be aware of their safety and surroundings while they play.

He also encouraged the people walking around Tacoma playing Pokémon Go to download the TacomaFIRST311 app, so they can report such things as potholes and burned-out streetlights around the city as they see them.

In the meantime, he has his own Pokémon to train. While he initially downloaded Pokémon Go only to see what the hype was about, he said he enjoyed playing it through the weekend.

“It’s actually helped me get out walking,” he said. “And it’s fun to go out and run into other people who have it, and start the conversation and socially interact with them in real life.

“Sometimes you would be on the other side of the street, and there’d be that smile of, ‘Yep, I got it too.’”

This story was originally published July 11, 2016 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Zombies? Invasion? Nope. Just Pokémon hunters."