Deputy places man under psychiatric hold then finds out man was only playing a game

On Wednesday deputies in Wynn County were dispatched to a man walking along the waterfront park acting suspiciously. The reporting party said the subject was walking up to various places in the park holding his cell phone mumbling to himself.

When contacted, Oliver Lynton 32 from Pennington, was seen walking up to the WW One memorial cross and stood in front of it for several minutes. He then walked to the bench dedicated to the late Judge Karen Osborn and stood in front of that for a few minutes. When contacted Lynton said he was capturing inter-dimensional portals to stop the “Shapers” by claiming portals of energy for “The Resistance” and he was now reinforcing the portals by placing shields and resonators on them. When asked how this was done Lynton pointed to his cell phone. Lynton was places on an emergency psychiatric hold and taken to the Wynn County Memorial Hospital.

Ingress

Ingress (image thanks to Niantic Labs)

This is where this story becomes strange. Upon arrival at NCMH a Wynn County Paramedic recognized Lynton and jokingly called out, “Hey Smurf!” to which Lynton replied, “Hi Froggy! Resistance is Existence! “Seems both play, albeit on for different factions, of a wildly popular game “Ingress.”

Ingress is a worldwide real time, role playing, GPS-dependent, game using cell phones or tablets, put out by the online giant Google. Players pick a faction, either blue or green, and capture dimensional portals. These portals are usually local points of interest, works of art, memorials, or other interesting places around town. The games endpoint is not known, however people playing this game have reported increased exercise, online and real time friendships, and “just the fun in finding interesting things about your town,” said Lynton.

Wynn County Sheriff Kim Davis said that a training bulletin will be sent out to all law enforcement agencies about this game to make sure this does not happen again. He ended the conversation by saying “I have become… Enlightened!”

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