Wow, this really does come out of the blue. A report coming in from San Francisco cites a suspect in the case of an iPhone 5 being lost at a bar this summer, claiming that Apple employees impersonated the Police in order to search his house.
Previously it was reported that an alleged iPhone 5 prototype had been lost at a bar. While the legitimacy of this report could not be confirmed, the allegation being levelled here is against supposed employees of Apple who questioned a man and searched his family residence in Bernal Heights for a lost iPhone 5 prototype traced to his house using GPS. There were six people who carried out this alleged con claiming themselves to be San Francisco Police officials.
If you've been following news related to Apple in general and the iPhone in particular for a very long time, you'll know that the then unreleased iPhone 4 was actually lost in a bar by an Apple employee. It was hidden inside an iPhone 3GS casing and when a random person saw an iPhone with strange markings left at the bar, he was obviously surprised and took it home from where it was taken off his hands for a couple of thousand dollars by a big blog network which then revealed exclusive pictures of the next generation iPhone we would all come to know of as the iPhone 4.
Similar reports came about regarding the current next generation iPhone which will supposedly be called the iPhone 5. Which no one knows for sure whether or not an iPhone 5 was lost at a bar, but this man's claim that he was questioned and his house searched by people who were not with the San Francisco Police Department raises quite a few questions.
If you're wondering how this whole con went down, here's how Sergio Calderón, the man who was questioned and had his house searched, explains it:
1. At 6 p.m. in the evening, four men and two women wearing badges show up at his door and claim that they are with the San Francisco Police Department. They ask if he had been to Cava 22, the bar where the iPhone 5 was allegedly lost, he admitted because Sergio had indeed been there.
2. These people tell Sergio that a lost iPhone had been located to his house using GPS. None of them said that they were working on behalf of Apple, with Apple or for Apple.
3. Sergio claims that one of the alleged officers also threatened his extended family members, who live with him, about their US immigration status. Sergio and his family have been legally residing in the US. The officer said that they were all going to get in trouble.
4. Sergio says that he allowed them to search his house, his car as well as his computer in order to see whether or not he had attached this lost iPhone 5 to his computer or had any files on his hard drive relating to it. There was nothing to be found.
5. An officer seems like he's on the phone with the owner of the lost iPhone. They tell Sergio that the person is not going to press charges if he were to return the lost iPhone. They even offered him $300. Due to the fact that he really had nothing to give them in return for their generous offer, an officer named Tony gave Sergio his number and all of them left.
Here's what happened after these alleged officers left. The number given to Sergio belonged to one Anthony Colon who confirmed that he is an Apple employee but did not divulge any details. He is actually a former San Jose Police Sergeant and holds the Senior Investigator position at Apple. San Francisco Police Department has confirmed that they have no such record of a raid being conducted at the place of Sergio in Bernal Heights. They would have a record if something of this sort had been done.
So if this little operation was conducted under the orders of Anthony Colon, Senior Investigator at Apple, it is possible that the people who came to Sergio's house were Apple security personnel impersonating officers of the San Francisco Police Department. An act of this sort is a serious felony punishable under law by up to one year in prison and if Sergio's claims are actually true and he really was coerced into getting his house searched, this could be a serious lawsuit, if filed, for the company with damages running well in to a couple of million dollars.
However, there's something amiss about Sergio's statement as well. Its the constitutional right, a widely known one, of a US citizen to demand to see a search warrant before letting in the cops. Why did he not demand to see a warrant?
These are questions which will be answered as this story unfolds. As of now, Apple's media relations department has refused to comment. Nevertheless, you can comment down below and let us know if you think the Cupertino based outfit planned this con just to gain some extra publicity.