It could have been me.

That was the reaction of many who heard the story of Jeremy Cook this week.

The 18-year-old Brampton native was shot to death in London, Ont., on Sunday after using a location app to track down the men who stole his iPhone.

“Jeremy never deserved this, and it just doesn’t feel right,” said Raeann Richard, 15, a friend of Cook’s who spoke to the Star.

Cook had left his cellphone in a taxi, but tracked it electronically to an address on Highbury Ave. around 5:15 a.m. Sunday. Police say he went to the address with a relative, where he confronted three males in a car.

One of the males got out of the car before it started to move away as Cook clung to the driver’s side door, police said.

The vehicle drove off and shots were fired. When police arrived, they found Cook dead. He had been shot several times.

The lesson contained in Cook’s death — that digital sleuthing can devolve into real-world violence — has reverberated through social media this week. “Just heard about Jeremy Cook from London getting killed over an iPhone. How appalling,” wrote @ericaonfire, whose Twitter profile identifies her as an Ontario resident.

GPS tracking technology has become commonplace in a world saturated with valuable smart phones and people looking to procure them illegally. The popular apps provide victims of theft with access to a world of vigilante justice and swift restitution.

But despite their slick design and ease of use, “Find my Phone” services can coax people towards dangerous and even deadly confrontations with unscrupulous strangers, experts say.

“This is the most significant warning we’ve had thus far that there’s a limit to what apps can do,” said Carmi Levy, a technology analyst and journalist based in London, Ont. “Apps can very quickly get us in trouble if we don’t heed the warnings.”

London police are still looking for three suspects in connection with the killing. Three males were taken into custody, but were released on Monday once it was determined they were not involved, said Const. Ken Steeves.

Dangerous though it may be, retrieving smart phones appeals to many because of the sentimental value the devices often carry: people treat them not only as expensive gadgets, but as portable photo albums and Rolodexes containing years’ worth of personal information.

But in the wake of the London tragedy, law enforcement agencies appealed to the public with a simple message: no phone is worth your life.

“It’s a material item,” said Toronto Police spokesperson Jenifferjit Sidhu.

It’s something that can be replaced, where your life cannot be replaced. So it’s better to err on the side of caution. Do not take matters into your own hands.”

Once you realize your phone’s gone, you should deactivate it, call your service provider and report the theft to police, Sidhu said. These reports help law enforcement identify trends and potentially return the phone if it is recovered.

Police also recommend that people keep their phones protected with a code to render it less valuable to a thief and note down the phone’s unique IMEI number (it appears if you type *#06#), which can be used to blacklist the phone and prevent it from being reactivated.

Three years ago, Toronto police launched a public awareness campaign on the issue, but officers admit that if you call them about a stolen phone, it’s unlikely to prompt an immediate response.

“We have daily reports of street robberies” of phones, said Sidhu, who couldn’t produce statistics but assured the Star that it’s a common occurrence.

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Levy, the tech analyst, said that despite the problem’s seeming persistence, smart phone owners should learn to let go.

“All you’ve lost is a phone, which in today’s age of cloud apps and synced data that lives on the web — even a phone isn’t that valuable commodity anymore,” he said. “We have to stop attaching so much value to our actual phones, they’re really worthless.”