Hitchhiking, it turns out, is no less dangerous for robots than it is for humans.

HitchBOT, the beloved robot who bummed and thumbed its way across Canada and two European countries, met its untimely demise in Philadelphia on Saturday.

Vandals took apart the Ontario-built robot, sending online photos of its disembodied parts to the project’s creators.

“Someone ripped off the arms and the head is missing,” said Ryerson University communications professor Frauke Zeller, one of two project leaders.

“We had to assume this was not just a Photoshop job.”

After receiving the photos, she and co-creator David Harris Smith checked online to see whether the battery was still going. True to suspicion, HitchBOT had performed its last operational shutdown.

“We want to reflect on what happened to see what we can learn from it,” Zeller said.

“We were all shocked and saddened by it,” she said.

“Anybody who is basically taking HitchBOT apart to salvage valuable parts will be disappointed,” added Smith, who teaches communications at McMaster University.

Along with bright red eyes and a wide smile on its bucket head, HitchBOT was born with a motherboard, tablet and camera, but its functions are programmed to allow for limited engagement with humans, disappointing possible thieves.

“Bad things happen to good robots,” the two self-described HitchBOT family members said in unison when the Star reached them in their homes Saturday night.

“R2D2 has a bad outcome in one of the Star Wars,” Harris reflected.

The co-creators hope to foster a second version of HitchBOT, or at least sire a child in the near future.

HitchBOT seemed to speak from beyond the grave Saturday.

“My trip must come to an end for now, but my love for humans will never fade. Thanks friends,” tweeted the robotic hitchhiker.

HitchBOT, having conquered Canada and parts of Germany and the Netherlands, took off for a coast-to-coast adventure in the U.S., beginning in Salem, Mass., two weeks ago.

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It was photographed enjoying box seats at Fenway Park in Boston and staring wide-eyed at the mortal mayhem of Times Square shortly after.

Friday night, it was picked up by two males who live in Philadelphia, according to their Twitter accounts.

“Thanks Philly!!! You freaking Killed @hitchBOT I’m so mad right now,” tweeted one, Jesse Wellens, shortly after a selfie with his new robotic pal.

He and a friend tweeted they would drop it off about 1 a.m. at Elfreths Ally, a historic cobblestoned street 100 metres from the Delaware River in the heart of downtown Philadelphia. That was the last place HitchBOT was seen.

“One of the reasons we were so shocked and saddened is that it had been going so well and its interactions with humans were great,” Zeller said.

“Everyone was so enthusiastic, especially online, and we just want to thank them and people who picked it up too.”

HitchBOT has more than 42,000 Twitter followers, 13,000 of whom began to track it in the last two weeks alone.

It was designed to be a talking travel companion and could toss out factoids and carry limited conversation. A GPS in the robot tracked its location, and a camera randomly snapped photos about every 20 minutes to document its travels.

During past travels, the robot attended a comic convention and a wedding, and it had its portrait painted in the Netherlands. It once spent a week with a heavy metal band.

It was going to San Francisco — sure to wear flowers in its hairless bucket head — before its journey was cut short.

It took HitchBOT less than four weeks to travel more than 10,000 kilometres across Canada last summer, with only the kindness of strangers to ensure it kept on truckin’.

-- With files from The Associated Press