Pokémon Go players robbed at University of Maryland in latest alarming incident connected to game

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - University of Maryland Police are investigating after a gunman robbed several Pokemon Go players on the school's College Park campus Tuesday night -- a crime that is the latest in a string of alarming incidents connected to the new smartphone game.

Officers say three victims were robbed by an armed gunman while they were playing the game between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. It is unclear if the game was used by the suspect to somehow lure the victims to the area.

The police chief for the University of Maryland Police Department says that staff should expect to see extra officers on the street patrolling the campus. Officers are currently working overtime looking at over 400 surveillance cameras on the campus in an effort to find the suspect. Meanwhile, the chief is asking that students be on guard and to be careful if they're playing the game at night.

The suspect turned off the phones he took so officials couldn't track them. He was wearing a mask, but officials are hoping to find a camera that may have caught him before he put the mask on.

The chief says playing the game in the dark makes you look like a "human firefly" that makes you an easy target.

Tuesday night's armed robberies are not the only instances in which the Pokemon Go game has been connected to strange, dangerous and unusual happenings.

Earlier this month in Missouri, four teens robbed several victims after luring them to a specific location using the smartphone game.

In Phoenix, a sex offender's residence was highlighted as a place for users to visit while playing the game.

Police in Wyoming say a Pokemon Go user stumbled across a dead body while playing online.

Earlier this week, officials at Arlington National Cemetery and the Holocaust Museum requested that smartphone users refrain from playing the game when they visit.

Authorities at the University of Maryland say none of the victims were injured during the robberies. Police are still searching for the person connected to these incidents.