Father Of Baby Who Was Dangling From Paris Balcony Was 'Playing Pokemon Go'

By now, the whole world has heard about the heroic endeavours of 22-year-old Mamoudou Gassama, who scaled the front of a Paris building in order to save the life of a child who was dangling from one of the balconies.

Mamoudou, who had only moved to the French capital a few months before, was rewarded for his fearless actions. Scaling up the front of the building without any thought for his own safety, he reached the child, and brought him to safety.

He was later awarded with a medal for his bravery by French President Emmanuel Macron and will soon be made an official French citizen.

But while it's incredible that he was able to save the life of the child- people have, understandably, been trying to work out where the hell the kid's parents were.

Well, it turns out that the boy's mother was out of the country.

After a brief investigation, law enforcement discovered that at the time of the incident, the boy's mother was out of the country visiting relatives in Reunion Island, and that his father was supposed to be looking after him.

PA

Instead of doing that, however, he allegedly went out to the shop and started playing Pokémon Go on his way home. As a result, he was detained overnight by French authorities for parental neglect. He was charged with being 'missing in action'. Which he probably wishes he will be when the boy's mother gets hold of him.

The prosecutor in the case, François Molins, told BFM-TV that the father 'took a long time to return home because he had decided to play the smartphone game Pokémon Go when he left the store. He is devastated because he realizes what he did, and the tragic consequences that it could have led to'.

Thanks to the quick thinking actions of Mamoudou, not to mention his incredible athletic dexterity - which led to him being dubbed 'Spider-Man' - what could have been fatal disaster was prevented.

Hopefully this will serve as a warning to all parents out there that trying to catch an elusive digital made up thing that doesn't actually exist isn't a good thing to do when you're meant to be looking after your child.

Topics: News, Spider-Man

Mischa Pearlman

Mischa is a freelance journalist usually based in either New York or London. He has written for Kerrang!, Record Collector, NME, the New York Observer and FLOOD magazine, among others. Contact him at [email protected]