LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Two US police officers who went off to hunt for Pokemon instead of responding to a robbery have been fired.

Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell cruised the streets searching for fantastic creatures in the augmented reality smartphone game, documents show, bagging a relatively rare Snorlax, as well as a difficult-to-trap Togetic — but no criminals.

In-car recording of their conversation revealed that they had heard the call for help at the Los Angeles department store, but decided instead to drive off.

“Officer Mitchell alerted Lozano that ‘Snorlax’ ‘just popped up’,” legal documents relating to their dismissal show.

“For approximately the next 20 minutes, the [recording] captured petitioners discussing Pokemon as they drove to different locations where the virtual creatures apparently appeared on their mobile phones.”

The Los Angeles police officers snagged the Snorlax and then turned their attention to a Togetic, which proved to be a little tricky to subdue.

“Holy crap, man. This thing is fighting the crap out of me,” Mitchell said, according to the documents, which were published last week.

Both men were charged with multiple counts of misconduct, and admitted failing to respond to the robbery call during the incident, but denied they had been playing Pokemon Go.

The pair insisted in disciplinary hearings that they had merely been discussing the game, and challenged Los Angeles city’s dismissal.

California’s court of appeal, however, did not believe their explanations, and upheld their firings.

Pokemon Go took the mid-2010s by storm, with millions around the world glued to their smartphones in the hunt for fantastical creatures.