Police in Silicon Valley have launched an investigation the lost Apple iPhone prototype incident that made news earlier this week and sold to tech site Gizmodo for thousands of dollars.
Gizmodo got the iPhone after Apple engineer Gray Powell left the device in a bar in Redwood City, California, on March 18, according to the blog. A patron found the device on a stool and sold it to Gizmodo for $5,000 after trying unsuccessfully to contact Apple about it, the blog said.
CNET is now reporting that there is a police investigation into the incident under way, with a computer task force called REACT (Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team) seeking to determine if criminal charges could be filed. Against whom isn’t clear.
Some legal analysts have said in the least that Apple may have a case against the prototype’s finder, and possibly Gizmodo as well depending on the facts.
On Tuesday, Brian Lam, Gizmodo’s editorial director, acknowledged that the prototype had been stolen, not lost. “Just so you know, we didn’t know this was stolen when we bought it,” Lam said in a blog post that described Apple’s request for the iPhone’s return.