World's first 'Poketaxi' launched as Pokemon Go fever hits
A taxi driver is taking advantage of Pokemon Go fever by creating the world’s first ‘Poketaxi’, driving customers around chasing imaginary creatures.
Emilio Cacho charges Pokemon hunters £4 an hour to chase down Pokemon in the small town of Minatitlan, Mexico.
‘I still don’t fully understand the game, or why people have become so obsessed with it’, he told MailOnline, ‘but I’ve been fully booked since day three, so I’m certainly not complaining’.
The ‘Poketaxi’ idea first came to the 29-year-old when a friend sent him a screenshot image of a rat Pokemon he had managed to catch.
The game involves people searching for virtual creatures - Pokemon - in real time around their towns and cities, with many walking for miles in the hunt for the rarest Pokemon.
The Pokemon Go craze has taken the world by storm; the app has soared to top the App Store charts, with many gamers now averaging more time on the Nintendo app than Facebook and WhatsApp.
‘I had no idea what my friend was on about’, Emilio told MailOnline. ‘But when I got home after work, all my other friends on Facebook were uploading images of the game’.
‘After a friend explained to me what it was about, I saw a chance to make some money’.
He advertised the service to a Facebook group, and quickly received interested responses.
His idea proved so popular that by Wednesday he had a Pokeball image and the word ‘Poketaxi’ painted onto his car.
‘It’s done wonders for business. I’ve had over 20 repeat clients, and not a moment’s rest since I began’.
‘I’m becoming quite an expert in where the find the rarer Pokemon’, he said. ‘The rats and the bats are everywhere around here, but on Friday we managed to catch something that looked like an electric dog, which my client was very happy with’.
‘Apparently there is a Loch Ness Monster-looking thing around here’, he told MailOnline, ‘but I haven’t seen it yet’.
‘I’m hoping lots of rare Pokemon arrive on the Gulf of Mexico, so that I can make my gamer clients happy’.
Emilio says demand for his ‘Poketaxi’ is so high that he is considering investing in a second taxi in order to franchise the idea.
‘It makes sense to make the most of this fashion while it lasts’, he said.
The Pokemon Go craze has become so popular that last weekend it claimed its first life, when a New Zealand man, oblivious to his surroundings, walked off a bridge.
Evert Johnson, 28, fell 15 metres from an Auckland bridge on Sunday while hunting for rare Pokemon in New Zealand’s largest city.
In the United States, a TV presenter became so distracted by the hunt for a Pikachu that she interrupted a live broadcast in order to search for it.
‘You guys gotta careful with these Pokemon, you’re just walking around all over the place!’ joked Channel 10 weatherman Bobby Deskins, as news anchor Allison Kropff wandered in front of camera during his forecast.
In New York, a man’s infidelity was discovered when his suspicious partner saw that he had caught a Pokemon in his ex-girlfriend’s backyard.
Evan Schribner had no good excuse for having been at his ex’s house, and was promptly dumped.