San Francisco Police with No Record of Lost iPhone 5 Investigation

SFWeekly has cast some serious doubts about the lost iPhone 5 report posted by CNet yesterday. CNet had reported that an Apple employee had lost an iPhone prototype at a San Francisco restaurant and bar in July. Apple and the San Francisco Police reportedly investigated and even tracked down the location to a house which was searched.

SFWeekly called the San Francisco Police Department and discovered that they had no records of any investigation nor of any visit or search of the house claimed in the original article.

Esparza says no records of the visit to Bernal Heights by police officers -- which should be recorded in documentation per standard SFPD procedures -- exist at either Mission or Ingleside stations, at least one of which would have handled the incident. (Ingleside station covers Bernal Heights, while the phone was allegedly lost at Cava 22, a bar in the Mission.) Police dispatchers also have no records of any incident involving the address where the search for the phone supposedly took place, Esparza says.

Furthermore, the officer they spoke to said they had told CNet's reporter the same just weeks ago. Despite this, CNet reports their information came from someone 'familiar with the investigation". CNet has yet to clarify.

PCMag similarly contacted the San Francisco police who also denied any knowledge of the incident.

Update: Apple may have posed as police.

Top Rated Comments

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caliguy

103 months ago

Ok, so maybe there was no prototype iPhone lost at Cava 22, but did you know they offer a lime-marinated shrimp ceviche?

Rating: 11 Votes

bb426

103 months ago

Reporting nowadays can be summed up in three words.

It HELLA sucks.

What's up CNet?

Rating: 7 Votes

chrmjenkins

103 months ago

The whole thing has smelled kind of fishy. You're telling me this thing has been gone for over a month and no has paid to put it on the web?

Rating: 5 Votes

BC2009

103 months ago

Maybe somebody at CNET is part owner in that bar.

Rating: 5 Votes

Rudy69

103 months ago

CNet lying.... no way :rolleyes:

Rating: 4 Votes

theBB

103 months ago

As soon as the rumor came out, there were people who got suspicious as the article was so gushing about the menu options at the bar. It sounds like a publicity stunt for the bar and another low point for CNET.

Rating: 4 Votes

undertowmusic

103 months ago

crafty publicity scam to get mentions for the bar.

Rating: 3 Votes

Juan007

103 months ago

One moron makes up a story and the entire media reports it as fact. Next time confirm with sources, it's called being a journalist.

I knew it was a bogus story all along. No way someone loses another prototype in a bar, Steve would come out of retirement just to rip the loser a new *****.

Rating: 3 Votes

till213

103 months ago

Ok, so maybe there was no prototype iPhone lost at Cava 22, but did you know they offer a lime-marinated shrimp ceviche?

Hell yeah, and the nice tequila shots, too! Remember, it's on the corner of 22nd... ;)

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Even if this were true, how can a dude lose a one of a kind iPhone 5 prototype in a restaurant?

You mean... like that other Apple dude who lost the iPhone 4 prototype last year in another public bar (which unfortunatelly doesn't serve lime-marinated shrimp ceviche)? Now that is a fact...!

Rating: 3 Votes

blackboxxx

103 months ago

Apple probably paid out millions in hush money, is about to buy CNet to silence them, and has the perpetrators locked up in secret dungeons under the Apple campus.

I heard they were previously used as HumanCentiPad development labs.

Rating: 2 Votes

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