For a woman, walking across a parking lot after the sun goes down can be scary. The sound of strange footsteps behind us makes it easy to picture a stalker with a knife or gun, ready to rob or rape us.

Most of the time, that person is unaware their presence is frightening. I once confronted a young man who was walking too close, and he was shocked that I’d think he meant me harm.

But that’s what happens with unintended consequences.

My son and daughter-in-law were the victims of unintended consequences when she was shopping in their home town. She and her friend were at the huge box store when they realized a lone man was following them.

When they left, he left, and they saw him get in a truck and pull out onto the same road they were on. Frightened, they tried to lose him on the way home, taking a different route.

When they finally got home to their small farm out in the country, they ran in and locked all the doors and windows.

Throughout the rest of the night, vehicles drove slowly by their house, a few even coming into the driveway, until my son scared them off. They called the local police who didn’t seem to think this was a big deal.

But my daughter-in-law was terrified. They have four small children, and there’s not a lot of traffic around their home. They decided to stay up all night and guard their home, their children and themselves.

They called the police again the next day, and a young deputy wondered if the people were looking for Pokemons.

And that’s exactly what was going on.

Seems my son’s house was the original site of the post office in that area back in the early 1900s. The people behind “Pokemon Go” put one of the more desirable Pokemons in my son’s back yard, never checking to see if someone lived there.

The unintended consequence of putting a Pokemon on their property caused my son’s family to be terrorized for almost two days.

People were getting pretty bold trying to catch the Pokemon, even driving onto their property and trying to sneak behind their house and into the yard without thinking that they were trespassing and scaring the people who lived in the house.

They finally found a hotline number to call to take their house off the “Pokemon Go” site, but they couldn’t get the company to remove their property from the game. Their request is “under review.”

So now my daughter-in-law has to constantly capture the Pokemons, wait for them to regenerate and capture them again.

The unintended consequences of a “game” has taken this young family hostage and won’t let go. My son had to miss work when this first happened because they didn’t know who was stalking their house, and he was going to protect his family and property.

Before this game started, they never thought twice about letting their children play in the back yard, climb the trees near their garage or ride their bikes.

Now my son and daughter-in-law have to worry about strangers coming onto their property day and night, all because they want to capture a Pokemon.

For those who forget that their actions have consequences, think before you act and have the decency to change a game or a fad when it negatively affects innocent people. 

So no “Pokemon Go” here.

It’s “Pokemon Get Out and Stay Out.”

 

This article was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.

 

Denise Adams’ email is dhadams1955@yahoo.com.