A teenager was killed after using an app to find his lost cell phone

Canadian law enforcement are stumped by a case involving a teenager killed for trying to reclaim his lost cell phone.

18-year-old Jeremy Cook apparently left the smartphone in a cab over the weekend, police tell CBC News.

London Police Constable Ken Steeves told the publication Cook used a mobile tracking app to trace the device to an address where he and a relative who accompanied him were "confronted by three men in a car."

The exchange escalated and the car began to drive off, but police say Cook grabbed on to the driver's door. He was shot multiple times, and later died from his wounds.

The car and the phone were recovered, and investigators are now examining surveillance footage to try to piece together what happened.

Cook's death has prompted law enforcement to urge the public to think twice about using mobile apps to track lost devices - more specifically, using them to retrieve the lost items on their own.

"The app itself is a great tool to have ... but if you suspect there's any potential for violence at all, we certainly encourage people to contact police," Steeves told CBC News.

Investigators on the case are left to ponder why someone would go to such lengths to retrieve a phone. IDC Canada's mobile phones analyst Sanjay Khanna had a suggestion.

"Our attachment to our data is so strong that it might prompt people to not be as cautious as authorities might wish us to be," Khanna told CBC News.