A Canadian teenager was shot to death on Sunday morning for tracking his stolen smartphone.
Jeremy Cook of Brampton, Ontario, was murdered at about 5.15 a.m. on Sunday morning in London, Ontario. Police discovered his body near Huron Street and Highbury avenue.
The 18-year-old had left his phone in the back of a taxi and used a tracking-app to retrieve its location. This lead him to a secluded area where he confronted three men driving a Mazda sedan. What happened next remains a mystery, but police believe that Cook grabbed the driver’s side door as the vehicle tried to escape. The men then drew firearms, shooting Cook several times. He later died from multiple wounds.
The car was found later in the day abandoned nearby and police have recovered CCTV of the area. Arrests have been made but the people are not thought to be involved in the crime. London police are stressing that this is an extremely rare occurrence but vigilance must be taken with any tracking application. The attack is the first of its kind within Ontario.
“The app itself is a great tool to have. Nobody could ever predict that what occurred was going to occur in that case,” Steeves said. “But if you suspect there’s any potential for violence at all, we certainly encourage people to contact police. We’d be more than happy to come out and investigate with the hopes of retrieving the phone.”
With mobile phones becoming expensive hubs for our personal data, it’s no surprise the lengths that some people will go to in order to retrieve them. These applications are great tools if the user has left their device at a restaurant, bar or party, but the relevant authorities should always be used if you don’t recognise the location.