Apple engineer frantically searched for lost prototype iPhone

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
The person who found a prototype iPhone at a California bar did not notify the owners of the establishment or contact the Redwood City Police Department after obtaining the device, according to a new report.



While a previous report from Gizmodo said the person who found the device attempted to return it directly to Apple, the finder never contacted the owner of the Gourmet Haus Staudt bar, nor the local authorities, according to Jeff Bercovici of Daily Finance. Both Volcker Staudt, owner of the bar, and Sgt. Dan Mulholland of the Redwood City Police Department said they were not informed of the device.



Staudt told Bercovici that the Apple engineer who allegedly left the prototype iPhone at his bar "called constantly trying to retrieve it."



"The guy was pretty hectic about it," Volcker reportedly told Daily Finance. He questioned why the person who found the phone didn't bring it back to the bar, suggesting that was the simplest option to return the device to its rightful owner.



Bercovici also noted that Apple did not report the device as lost or stolen to the local police department. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.



The editorial was later updated to express the opinion that Gawker Media, which paid $5,000 to obtain the device, "subsidized a crime." Paul J. Wallin, of the California law firm Wallin & Klaritch, said the burden was with Gawker Media, parent company of Gizmodo, to determine whether the device was legally obtained.



Gawker founder and owner Nick Denton responded by stating that his company was not sure the device was created by Apple until they opened it up and found the company's name on some of its internal parts. Earlier this week, Denton bragged via his Twitter account that his company is willing to pay for exclusives. "We'll do anything for a story," he wrote. "Our only obligation is to our readers."



Gizmodo allegedly returned the device to Apple after the Cupertino, Calif., company formally requested it this week. The website published the letter received from Bruce Sewell, senior vice president and general counsel, and responded by saying the device was "burning a hole" in their pockets.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 268
    bloggerblogbloggerblog Posts: 2,462member
    Wadyaknow? Ha!
  • Reply 2 of 268
    29922992 Posts: 202member
    riiiight....
  • Reply 3 of 268
    intenseintense Posts: 106member
    I feel sad for that apple engineer ... humans do forget ...



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 2992 View Post


    riiiight....



  • Reply 4 of 268
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Intense View Post


    I feel sad for that apple engineer ... humans do forget ...



    Has it been reported yet as to whether or not he was supposed to have it off campus?



    Maybe the fact that he's still alive says that he was allowed to carry it with him.
  • Reply 5 of 268
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    Has it been reported yet as to whether or not he was supposed to have it off campus?



    Maybe the fact that he's still alive says that he was allowed to carry it with him.



    He wasn't immediately fired so I would hazard a guess he was authorized.
  • Reply 6 of 268
    Quote:

    Gawker founder and owner Nick Denton responded by stating that his company was not sure the device was created by Apple until they opened it up and found the company's name on some of its internal parts.



    What a piece of crap. What do you have on the backside? "iPhone". Maybe, it's a Microsoft prototype? We are not stupid Denton.
  • Reply 7 of 268
    sandausandau Posts: 1,230member
    if this wasn't a leak, then for sure this kid isn't going to be testing any more Apple prototypes!



    I prefer getting the new stuff as a surprise, it's much more fun that way. Having some jackoff at giz put together a crappy webpage is NOT better than Steve-o doing his one more thing...



    I think we lost some 'fun' this summer. drat.



    ...and how many more times will we have the honor of Steve on stage with a cool device. This kind of thing is limited.. his years are closing.
  • Reply 8 of 268
    I think the story will bear out that this was not a simple "I found this phone and had no idea..., then tried to return it once I realized...."



    I think there is a good chance the phone was left behind because it 'was fallen out of the pocket (or man purse or whatever)' by the finder.



    It is common sense to turn things in at an establishment where one finds it. Even accounting for the generally low level of common sense around these days, the story still stinks fishy.



    I like rumors as much as the next Apple fanboy/girl. But resorting to criminal behavior to obtain what are obviously protected trade secrets, is another story. I do not want to read about it.



    I will make it a priority to not visit Gizmoto, and hope many others will join in on a boycott of Gawker media sites. They really seem to be criminal scum.



    In the meantime, I will take solace in the fact that there is not such thing as bad publicity, and apply it to Apple not Gizmoto, and hope that the 2 month loss of time to the competitors is outweighed by the publicity this story is getting, which is obviously huge...
  • Reply 9 of 268
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by appleqc View Post


    What a piece of crap. What do you have on the backside? "iPhone". Maybe, it's a Microsoft prototype? We are not stupid Denton.



    Did you know? There are a lot of iPhone fakes out there. Many have Apple logos and the iPhone designation printed on them.



    That's your fact for the day.
  • Reply 10 of 268
    bushman4bushman4 Posts: 858member
    Why wouldn't the 'ALLEGED APPLE ENGINEER" call his own phone number and ask the finder to return it for a $1000 reward if he was that desperate?? or should I say if the phone was the real thing!!!



    The more this story gets thought about the more I'm laughing. Somebody pulled off a good stunt and it WAS NOT APPLE.
  • Reply 11 of 268
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Intense View Post


    I feel sad for that apple engineer ... humans do forget ...



    At least he didn't drop it into the toilet......not that I've ever done that mind you.
  • Reply 12 of 268
    wonderwonder Posts: 229member
    Regardless of if it was an Apple device or not, it did not belong to the person they bought it from, and they knew that.
  • Reply 13 of 268
    It's obvious it was stolen (not handed to the guy by a drunk), that there was no real effort to return it (they had the guys name and facebook information...what more do you need?), and that Gizmodo knew what they were probably getting for 5 grand.



    It is funny to me that many people seem to have taken Gizmodo and the person who profited from the stolen prototype at their word (I'm sure the phone was handed to him by a drunk...). As if someone who stole it would say "yeah I saw it sitting there and I swiped it and got the hell out of Dodge."



    I feel bad for the engineer, I think releasing his name and everything publicly was a little low...and by a little low I mean a lot low...but still, that's kind of what you get when you bring the phone out drinking with you.
  • Reply 14 of 268
    s4mb4s4mb4 Posts: 267member
    Gizmodo will be under new management in a few months....
  • Reply 15 of 268
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member
    I love how Gizmodo keeps coming up with these things. They post the original story and then keep adding to it like they're making it up as they go along.



    The guy was never fired. That's the gaping black hole in Gizmodo's whole story.
  • Reply 16 of 268
    cubertcubert Posts: 728member
    Someones out of a job.
  • Reply 17 of 268
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BUSHMAN4 View Post


    Why wouldn't the 'ALLEGED APPLE ENGINEER" call his own phone number and ask the finder to return it for a $1000 reward if he was that desperate??.



    ?presumably as the iPhone had been remote-wiped, and so required reconnecting to iTunes and reauthorizing before it would function...
  • Reply 18 of 268
    stldougstldoug Posts: 10member
    If he had Mobile Me, couldn't he just have used the "Find my iPhone" feature?
  • Reply 19 of 268
    ghostface147ghostface147 Posts: 1,629member
    I bet he got something put in his HR file.
  • Reply 20 of 268
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stldoug View Post


    If he had Mobile Me, couldn't he just have used the "Find my iPhone" feature?



    No. Find My iPhone is broken in OS4 builds, which this one is thought to have had. MobileMe Remote Wipe is also broken, so they believe the Exchange Remote wipe was used.
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