Skip to main content

Apple Employee Loses iPhone 5 In Bar - Again

Apple employees, it seems, have an uncanny habit of losing unannounced smartphones in bars, as Cnet reports that an unreleased iPhone (ed: could either be the iPhone 4S or the iPhone 5) has been lost in a San Francisco bar called Cava22, and may have been sold on Craigslist for a mere $200.

Greg Sandoval and Declan McCullagh cite a source claiming that Apple contacted the San Francisco police department, told them that the device was "priceless" and were desperate to secure its return.

Apple was able to trace the handset to a building, but while they managed to find someone who was actually at Cava22 the night the phone went missing, the person in question denied knowing anything about the phone and the police did not find any incriminating evidence when they searched his house.

The episode reminds us of what happened last year to a former Apple computer engineer, Robert Gray Powell, who left the iPhone 4 prototype in a Beer Garden which was subsequently purchased by Gizmodo for $5000.

Ironically, CNet notes that the formal reading of a criminal complaint to Brian Hogan and Sage Wallower, the two men who stand accused of selling the iPhone 4 prototype to Gizmodo, will be held today.

If any publication purchases the iPhone 5 and repeats last year's Gizmodo saga, they will incur the wrath of Apple. Despite pulling in tens of millions of page views following the exclusive, Gizmodo and other Gawker online publications have been banned from Apple events ever since.