Two LAPD police officers are to remain fired after a court upheld their 2017 termination for ignoring a call for backup to a robbery-in-progress to instead chase a Snorlax outside their beat area in Pokemon GO. 

The bizarre story has only just surfaced in the wake of the ruling which concludes the multi-year quest to have their firing overturned. In a petition filed by the officers last week, former officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell claimed that the city acted improperly by using in-car footage of them discussing whether or not to respond to a call for backup by a fellow officer at a robbery-in-progress or instead venture outside their beat area to try and catch a Snorlax. 

The in-car footage reportedly shows the officers discussing the call, which they had initially claimed to miss due to the "loud urban environment" when later speaking with a detective investigating the matter, and shows them fighting another pokemon, a Togetic, while conversing about battle strategies. The officers argued that by "fighting" they had meant sharing the information about the togetic with other players in a companion app -- why former officers Lozano and Mitchell would deem that more acceptable is unclear. 

source: courts.ca.gov

Hilariously, while the two officers were playing hooky and ignoring calls for backup from their Sergeant, Jose Gomez, they were spotted by a police captain en-route to a homicide as the call for assistance came in. They were also parked in an alley with a line of sight to the actual robbery.

The court upheld their firing, maintaining that the City of Los Angeles had not acted improperly when using the in-car footage to justify their firing. It is unknown if the former officers have managed to catch a Snorlax in their time off.