While some people play “Pokémon Go,” others cash in on the internet’s new craze. After the augmented reality app’s release earlier in the month, people like 7-year-old Athen Salcedo became entrepreneurs. The Papillion, Nebraska native started selling glow-in-the-dark buttons and wristbands, cleverly titled Poké Glo. Now, in Mexico, a man identified as just Emilio, is similarly elevating the art of hustling. According to Milenio, 29-year-old Emilio has turned his regular taxi into a Pokétaxi. For about $7, he’ll drive you around Minatitlán, Veracruz for an hour so you can catch Pokémon. Every additional hour is a little more than $5.
Though, it’s a pure genius move, Emilio initially didn’t understand why his friend suddenly needed to drop into a church to catch a Pokémon. After getting a brief synopsis, he explained the game to his family, who suggested he start offering his services. So he got work, starting with taking his Nissan from a basic silver car to one with white-and-red accents and eventually, a few Pokéball decals.
He also marketed himself to Pokémon fan pages on Facebook, with a message that simply read: “Safe taxi. I’ll drive you around so you can find Pokemon for 130 pesos the first hour and from the second hour on 100 pesos. Contract me through whats.” FB users have shared the post at least 700 times, and liked it even more.
Mostly 13 to 15 year olds have taken him up on the offer, but things are going well. “They just ask me to drive slowly,” he said. “I have to go less than 12 miles an hour, so that the game tracks their distance or something like that. Truthfully, I don’t understand the game very much, but they tell me to go slowly or to stop. They then get off and walk, and do I don’t know what with their phone, and then they get back into the car and ask me to keep driving slowly.”