cava 22 site of the 2nd lost iphone

An Apple employee has lost another prototype iPhone at a Bay Area bar. A joint investigation by Apple and San Francisco police searched a local house but could not find it.

It looks like Apple employees haven’t learned anything from last year’s lost iPhone scandal. Cnet is reporting that an Apple employee lost a prototype iPhone at a San Francisco bar in late July. The phone was lost at the bar Cava 22, which is a tequila bar in the mission district. The situation sounds like a complete re-hash of what happened last year when a prototype iPhone 4 was lost in a Redwood City bar.

A couple of days after the phone was lost San Francisco police and Apple investigators used the phone’s built in GPS to attempt to pinpoint where the phone was located. The search ended at a house in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights district, where the 22 year old resident denied any knowledge of the phone. The man did confirm that he was at Cava 22 the night the phone was lost but insisted that he did not have the phone. He then let the police search his house, but the phone was not found. Before leaving the house an Apple employee offered the man a cash reward for the phone, no questions asked.

The story continues. It is reported that the prototype phone was then sold on Craigslist to an unknown buyer. The phone sold for only $200, which is quite a bit less than the $5000 paid last year by a tech blog.

Apple has denied any knowledge of the incident, and San Francisco police stated that Apple did not file a police report for the lost merchandise. If this story is true it would be a big blow to Apple’s ego since the company takes pride in its secretive nature. With the number of  rumors are flying around about the next iPhone it’s amazing that images of the device haven’t surfaced yet.

 

Showing 32 comments

  1. Ryan Jones at 4:51pm 6th September 2011 Are they doing this on purpose? *Sent via facebook for iPhone 5.
  2. Mike Dunn at 7:27am 1st September 2011 I can't really see this being a publicity stunt, every iPhone rumor becomes front page news. People line up for Apple products even before they are announced. I see this as either being a 2nd mistake two years in a row, or the source in the story made it up.
  3. Daniel Hoffman at 3:19am 1st September 2011 Now I know this is a marketing ploy by Apple. Two years in a row, come on!
  4. Mary Helen McMahon at 3:07am 1st September 2011 Yeah, right.
  5. Florian C Pilsl at 2:30am 1st September 2011 Just market field testing the phone, if no one picks it up=failed design
  6. James Phillips at 1:09am 1st September 2011 They really need to think of a new gimmick to create a pre-release buzz. Pathetic.
  7. Josh Smith at 12:56am 1st September 2011 Apple fail. Its just a marketing gimic
  8. Tom Pajak at 11:36pm 31st August 2011 Deja vu..swear i heard this story already...oh wait....I did....pure publicity stunt
  9. Nancy Wilkens at 11:14pm 31st August 2011 Who took a prototype to a bar? If it's not at the bar, it would not have been lost ...
  10. Luis Linares at 11:12pm 31st August 2011 Hey Scott, I was thinking the same thing. You have to admit, it's a clever way to bring out the latest iphone, in a way no one would think of doing it. And they probably pay someone that works for a small company like Gizmodo and in return they get a bunch of free publicity. So everyone is happy. People start talking about the latest iphone and "gizmodo" gets thousands af new people visiting their site.
  11. Julius Ikpekaogu at 11:09pm 31st August 2011 another ad
  12. Michael Hookano at 11:07pm 31st August 2011 lost.....? or sold in the bar?
  13. Cj TheDream Johnston at 11:02pm 31st August 2011 Man this iPhone5 in my hands is amazing.....
  14. 源月読 at 10:58pm 31st August 2011 two words publicity stunt
  15. Larry Brown at 10:56pm 31st August 2011 Bwahahaha!
  16. Akbar Hossain at 10:49pm 31st August 2011 will it blend
  17. Rick W. Buie at 10:47pm 31st August 2011 What a picture! "Oopsy-Doodle! I dropped my I-phone prototype! Geez! I hope no-one finds it!" lmao
  18. Chris Johnson at 10:40pm 31st August 2011 Okay, I can believe that one was a mistake. Two? That just isn't probable.I wonder how much of this is legit or a hoax: if it were truly a new prototype, there is no way someone would sell it for a meer $200, unless he was trying not to attract attention.
  19. David Nakamura at 10:40pm 31st August 2011 What a surprise, TOTAL shocker. [/sarcasm]
  20. Dave Moehle at 10:40pm 31st August 2011 I vote intentional
  21. 源月読 at 10:39pm 31st August 2011 Actually it isn't lost it is in one of his friends hands right this very second *shhh*
  22. Landa Walker at 10:38pm 31st August 2011 wounder how much its going for
  23. Scott Skinnydog Janiak-Ross at 10:38pm 31st August 2011 Are they doing it on purpose ?
  24. Andrew Couts at 3:36pm 31st August 2011 Oh, man, this is just ridiculous.
    1. Mike Dunn at 4:19pm 31st August 2011 I think the world is telling me that I need to start going out to bars more often!
    2. James D. Dunn at 5:31pm 31st August 2011 I seriously doubt this is an "accident". This generates so much free PR for them.
      1. Andrew Couts at 5:48pm 31st August 2011 Good thinking — but Apple doesn't really need more free PR, especially the kind that makes their employees look like drunken idiots.
        1. Jeffrey Van Camp at 7:00pm 31st August 2011 I picture Apple employees as robotronic duplicates of Steve Jobs, so this actually improves my opinion of them. At least they know how to party.
          1. Andrew Couts at 7:10pm 31st August 2011 Touché...
          2. Mike Dunn at 7:39pm 31st August 2011 Well lets take a look at the two bars that the phones were lost in. The first one in Redwood City serves 2 liter beers, and the second is a tequila bar, sounds like they know how to pick places to drink.
            1. Jeffrey Van Camp at 11:53pm 31st August 2011 Ha, we should get some pics from inside these bars. Lets really examine what kind of environment leads an Appler to get this trashed.
              1. Mike Dunn at 12:34pm 1st September 2011 I know I have at least one picture of me drinking a 2 liter boot of beer from there...
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