Two members of the Los Angeles Police Department were fired for ignoring a call to respond to a robbery in progress. However, you could argue that they had a pretty good reason for avoiding work. What was it? The pair were reportedly chasing down some rare catches while playing Pokémon GO.

According to The Verge, officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were let go from the police force after they got caught ignoring a request for backup in a robbery that took place in 2017.

The pair allegedly told their supervisor that they were unable to hear the call on their radio because of excessive background noises. However, the supervisor discovered something quite different when he went back and checked their dash cam.

Audio from the cam revealed that the duo heard the request quite clearly but opted out of answering, according to The Daily Beast. Shortly after literally being heard saying "screw it," they instead decided to leave their patrol area to hunt down a rare Pokémon that they spotted on the app — a Snorlax.

Lozano and Mitchell seemingly caught the supersized sleeping Pokémon and bagged a second rare find called Togetic that popped up nearby.

Unsurprisingly, their quest to catch them all was not appreciated by superiors. The Pokémon trainers were relieved from their positions and charged with six counts of on-duty misconduct.

They tried to appeal the decision by arguing that the information captured on the dash cam was a violation of their rights as it pertained to "private conversations."

Furthermore, they claimed that they were not playing a game but were simply engaging a "social media event," according to Boing Boing. Lozano and Mitchell went as far as to say that they hadn't actually caught the Pokémon but were only taking photos of them to share with friends.

What about the fact that they left their patrol area? According to statements made in court documents obtained by Boing Boing, they described that decision as both an "extra patrol" and a chance to "chase this mythical creature."

At the very least, these two deserve points for innovation.

To the surprise of literally no one, their appeal was not approved. Lozano and Mitchell were not reinstated to the force and will hopefully remember to Pokémon GO to work when they land a new job.

In the meantime, we get to benefit from the very iconic court documents. Check out a couple more snippets below:

Celebrities Who Look Like Pokemon

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