The guy who found the 4G iPhone prototype in a Silicon Valley bar was tracked down after his roommate tipped-off Apple.
21-year-old Brian Hogan's roommate Katherine Martinson called an Apple security official to report the whereabouts of the lost 4G iPhone prototype, according to new documents made public in the case.
Bad cop show plot
In what sounds like the plot for a bad made-for-TV cop show, following Martinson's call to Rick Orloff, Apple's Director of Information Security, the police were then apparently sent on a bizarre search for information about the missing iPhone, which involved recovering a desktop computer hidden in a church and a USB thumb drive concealed in a bush!
If that didn't sound strange enough already, the lost iPhone's serial-number stickers were recovered from the parking lot of a gas station.
Wired has published the entire 10-page search-warrant affidavit which outlines the strange saga which ended up with Hogan selling the prototype to Gizmodo for $5,000. Cash.
Hogan had told his roommate that he had received a total of $8,500 for the phone, though it is still unclear where that extra $3,500 came from. The roommate has claimed that she told Hogan that he should really have returned the phone to the engineer that had left it in the bar - as Hogan had identified him via his Facebook profile on the iPhone.
Gizmodo had also promised Hogan a bonus when Apple officially announce the new iPhone, according to the roommate.
According to the affidavit Gizmodo editor Jason Chen is currently being charged with possible receipt of stolen property, copying of a trade secret, and destruction of property worth more than $400.
The case continues...
Via Wired
