San Francisco man plans to sue Apple over iPhone prototype search

While we will have to wait until 2012 to see if another Apple employee will lose another unreleased iPhone, a San Francisco man plans to go after Apple for searching his home for a missing iPhone prototype.

According to an article on CNET posted earlier today, Sergio Calderón plans to bring a lawsuit against Apple for the search of his San Francisco home during July 2011. Apple employees entered and conducted a search within Calderón’s home to look for a lost prototype of an unreleased iPhone. According to Calderón, six people searched through his home and car as well as on his computer to check for recently connected devices. He was told that GPS tracking had led the officers to his address and voluntarily submitted to allow police officers to search of his home. 

Calderón stated that the officers threatened to call the immigration office on his family, but all members of the Calderón household are legal U.S. citizens. One member of the group also allegedly offered Calderón $300 for information leading to the recovery of the lost device. It was later discovered that the people performing the actual physical search of Calderón’s home were Apple employees while police officers waited outside. Calderón’s attorney, David Monroe, plans to draw up a complaint against Apple after negotiations broke down between Calderón and the Silicon Valley-based company. Monroe has labeled the incident as “outrageous” and stated “The real problem here is that police failed to disclose to my client that Apple employees would be searching his home.“ Monroe did not state what allegations would be included in the upcoming lawsuit.

Since this incident was the second time that an iPhone prototype has been lost at a local business, it’s likely the Apple has revised internal policy on who, if anyone, can remove an iPhone prototype from the Apple campus. The previous iPhone prototype that went missing happened during 2010 and was sold to Gizmodo for several thousand dollars. Gizmodo did not face any prosecution from the incident, but the two men involved in the sale received a year of probation as well as required community service.