Man Killed After Tracking Down Stolen Phone

Alabama man confronted thief, cops say
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 23, 2016 4:43 AM CST
Man Killed After Tracking Down Stolen Phone
Police say that if your phone is stolen, you should let them do the recovering.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A 23-year-old man in Alabama has become the latest person to follow a phone-tracking app all the way to his grave. Police say the man was shot dead outside a Baptist church in the Birmingham suburb of Fairfield Sunday night after he used an app to trace an iPhone that had been stolen from his car, AL.com reports. The victim "arrived on the scene and hit a button on the app that made the phone ring inside a vehicle," Fairfield Police Chief Leon Davis tells Reuters. "When he went to retrieve the phone inside the vehicle, the suspect shot and killed him." Davis says investigators believe the victim and the shooter knew each other.

Davis offers the same advice that police in Canada gave after a similar murder last year: Don't risk your life for your phone by confronting thieves. "If you have an app on the phone, contact your local police department. Let the police do their job and recover your stolen property," the chief says, per NBC News. "Don't take these matters into your own hands—these things normally don't turn out too good." No arrests have been made in the case, but the chief says investigators are hunting a suspect known as "G Boy" or "G Bo" and have some "very good leads." (A mom used the Find My iPhone app to help rescue her kidnapped teen daughter.)

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