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\"Pokemon Go\" is an augmented reality treasure hunt in which players walk around in real life to capture virtual characters as they pop up on their smartphone screens.

What started as a Facebook event for friends turned into the biggest Pokemon event yet. Thousands gathered at the Embarcadero and Dolores Park with the goal of catching as many Pokemon as possible while socializing during the seven-hour event that spanned 3.5 miles.

Dolores Park is filling up. #PokemonGO #POKECRAWLSF pic.twitter.com/uu5iHsYgUY

— alessandro fillari (@afillari) July 21, 2016

The Golden City transformed into a gold mine for hunting Pokemon.

\"I don't see why you wouldn't be playing it,\" Scott Olofsen told ABC News.

With so many players involved in the event, servers struggled to meet demands. Persistent crashes on the app left many players frozen with an error message for hours.

PokemonGo #Offline #PoodleCorp

— PoodleCorp (@PoodleCorp) July 16, 2016

Hackers took credit for the server crash on social media.

Frustrated players who experienced frozen screens rejoiced once the game was back in action.

Just witnessed some magic as an Ash and a Pikachu met on the street! #POKECRAWLSF pic.twitter.com/W1hnbbAbo8

— Andrea Rene (@andrearene) July 21, 2016

The app has proven to be extremely distracting for some players.

A Baltimore police body camera caught a distracted \"Pokemon Go\" driver crashing into a parked police patrol car early Monday morning. An officer followed the driver, who eventually stopped to show the game on his cellphone.

#PokemonGO is not all fun and games. Here is a video of a distracted driver who struck one of our cars. #PlaySafe pic.twitter.com/kOTfbTcILo

— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) July 19, 2016

\"That's what I get for playing this dumb [a--] game,\" the driver told the officer, in the nearly 90 second video.

No injuries were reported. The driver wasn't identified in the video and police did not say if he was facing any charges.

With rising safety concerns around the game, police in San Francisco made sure to have extra patrols out to keep players away from harm during the event on Wednesday.

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