[gosub100]

I still remember an article posted on HN about a developer/designer at Apple who left an unreleased iPhone prototype at a bar/restaurant. Apple had the entire police force at their fingertips pursuing the person who found it. I don't remember much about the details, but the person who founded may have posted to social media "whoa cool, check this thing out" or something very benign, which brought a major police presence to their house thanks to an employee's mistake. IIRC this wasn't the original iPhone, it was the 3rd or 4th gen thereabouts.

[Aurornis]

> I don't remember much about the details, but the person who founded may have posted to social media "whoa cool, check this thing out" or something very benign, which brought a major police presence to their house thanks to an employee's mistake.

It was a Gizmodo editor who paid $5,000 to buy the prototype after he basically knew it was stolen property. Apple reported it and the police got a warrant because knowingly buying stolen property for $5,000 is indeed a crime.

Gizmodo also got in contact with Apple and said they'd only return the phone (which they knew was stolen at that point) if Apple agreed to a list of terms. If you withhold someone's stolen property and refuse to give it back until they cave to your demands, the law is going to get involved. Again the warrant/seizure was overkill, but Gizmodo was doing some stupid stuff.

There were a lot of sketchy details about how the original guy got the phone. IIRC he tried to claim it was a mistake and that he tried to return it once he realized he grabbed the wrong phone, but he also made no effort to actually get it back to the bar. The panicked Apple engineer was calling the bar frantically to get it back. If he had made any effort at all to return the phone instead of selling it, it would have gone right back to the engineer.

The Gizmodo reporting also had other controversies. They were milking the situation for all they could, including basically identifying the poor Apple engineer who lost the phone. Really not cool. A lot of people hated Gizmodo for the way they treated the Apple engineer while they were trying to milk that story.

EDIT: Found it https://gizmodo.com/how-apple-lost-the-iphone-4-5520438

Notice how they open with the Apple engineer's name and personal info. They tell a story that tries to make the person who had the phone sound innocent, but it also involves him going through the Facebook account on the phone and then taking it home instead of giving it to the bar staff.

Then no details about how suddenly Gizmodo came to possess it for $5,000

[gosub100]

Thank you for finding this. As I said, I remembered very little from it. Clearly my recollection was lacking.

> they'd only return the phone (which they knew was stolen at that point) if Apple agreed to a list of terms

so it's wrong to give a T&C to a company that gives T&C to its users? You can't see the irony in this? or you are okay with it? Did apple have to wait in line just like everyone else who reports property crime to (presumably) Cupertino PD? I think not.

[Aurornis]

> so it's wrong to give a T&C to a company that gives T&C to its users? You can't see the irony in this? or you are okay with it?

What? The person had stolen property in their possession. They weren't in a position to be dictating terms of the deal because they legally did not have the right to possess the property, which they were fully aware was not owned by the person they bought it from.

[gosub100]

> stolen

From your article: "It was the last time he ever saw the phone, right before he abandoned it on bar stool, leaving to go home."

Sounds like a clear cut case of theft to me. Absolutely

[estimator7292]

No, it's wrong (and illegal) to hold ransom someone else's stolen property.

The phone belonged to Apple. The phone was stolen (illegal). The stolen phone was then knowingly purchased as stolen property (illegal), and then the reporter demanded payment for the stolen property (once more, illegal).