Two Lost Angeles Police Department (LAPD) police officers lost their appeal to be reinstated after ignoring a dispatch call to play Pokémon GO.

According to a ruling in a California appellate court, officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were caught searching for Pokémon characters through the Pokémon Go instead of responding to a nearby call for assistance.

Notes from the ruling stated that on Saturday, the officers failed to respond to a robbery in progress at a Macy’s on Crenshaw boulevard, downtown LA, which then caused another to take the distress call.

Captain Darnell Davenport said he diverted from his journey to a homicide to respond to the call which was ignored by Mitchell and Lozano.

Sergeant Jose Gomez, patrol supervisor for that day, noted both officers were in the vicinity radioed them to provide backup for Captain Davenport. Calls which document say they were ignored.

Both officers denied the claim in court, stating that they were in a loud park as the reason for not responding.

A claim which was later debunked by the video from squad car dashcam showed the officers deliberately ignoring calls opting to catch ‘rare Pokémon’.

The officers, as means to defend themselves, said they were talking about the game and not actually playing.

The officers were fired in 2018 after their actions were adjudged to be akin to misconduct and violated the public’s trust.

In their appeal, the former officers argued that the recordings were used improperly as evidence, however, that was denied by a Superior Court, and upheld by the Appeal Court on Friday, according to the ruling notes.