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What would you do if your cell phone got stolen? Call it? See if you can negotiate a price to get it back? Cry about how unfair the world is?
Chances are you wouldn’t do any of those things thanks to the popular phone app Find My Phone and others like it. These programs allow you to track where your lost or stolen device is, making it more likely to actually get it back. But after this horror story, you might want to think twice about clicking that button.
After his phone was stolen, a 23-year-old Alabama man used an app similar to Find My Phone to track it down and retrieve it. Unfortunately when he got to the destination, he was shot dead.
Leon Davis, Fairfield Police Chief, said the (unnamed) tracking app led the victim to a nearby church parking lot. He then reportedly “hit a button on the app that made the phone ring inside a vehicle. When he went to retrieve the phone inside the vehicle, the suspect shot and killed him.”
The victim, who was reportedly shot twice, was later taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.
According to Davis, the two knew each other and Fairfield police are now searching for the shooter. He reportedly fled the scene in a gold 2015 or 2016 Nissan Maxima with chrome accents. Davis said they have a potential street name for the shooter: G-boy or G-bo.
The chief said they believe the victim was shot after he used an app to track his stolen iPhone, which was taken out of his car.
“The case illustrates the danger of people trying to apprehend cell phone thieves on their own with the help of tracking apps,” Davis said. “Notify police and let them handle the recovering.”
Noted.
[H/T: Reuters]
