“The bizarre saga involving a lost prototype of the iPhone 5 has taken another interesting turn,” Peter Jamison reports for SFWeekly.
“Contradicting past statements that no records exist of police involvement in the search for the lost prototype, San Francisco Police Department spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield now tells SF Weekly that ‘three or four’ SFPD officers accompanied two Apple security officials in an unusual search of a Bernal Heights man’s home,” Jamison reports. “Dangerfield says that, after conferring with Apple and the captain of the Ingleside police station, he has learned that plainclothes SFPD officers went with private Apple detectives to the home of Sergio Calderón, a 22-year-old resident of Bernal Heights. According to Dangerfield, the officers “did not go inside the house,” but stood outside while the Apple employees scoured Calderón’s home, car, and computer files for any trace of the lost iPhone 5. The phone was not found, and Calderón denies that he ever possessed it.”
“It remains unclear whether these actions might constitute impersonation of a police officer, which in California is a misdemeanor that can bring up to a year of jail time. Apple has not responded to our requests for comment. “I don’t have any indication of that. I’m not going to go there,” Dangerfield said, when asked about whether the Apple detectives might have misrepresented themselves,” Jamison reports. “Dangerfield said he plans to contact Calderón to ask further questions about the incident.”
Read more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
Pays to wait for real facts TPs
Do the knee jerk baby!
I woulda found that phone.
“You’ve done the monkey, you’ve done the twist
And the mashed potatoes too
The swim and the fly have all gone by
There’s a brand new dance for you
Well now jerk children jerk (jerk children jerk)
Come on jerk children jerk (jerk children jerk)
Well now jerk children jerk (jerk children jerk)
Well jerk children jerk (jerk children jerk)”
I don’t like the idea of police basically standing guard outside while employees of a corporation go in and search a private residence.
sounds kinda scary personally.
Scary indeed. No warrant, no search. End of story. Can’t believe this guy let the apple police into his house.
If he’s innocent, that’s awful in regards to his civil liberties. In any case, I bet he’s going to get more unauthorized visits thru his home. I’m sure many low-lives would be searching thru his house when he’s out, especially after being offered high rewards by wealthy, foreign companies or governments. He’ll probably be approached by such agents as well, with attractive offers for the device.
It’s kinda his fault for letting them in. If they didn’t have a warrant he didn’t have to let them search.
+1
Jesus;
From the article:
“Reached this afternoon, Calderón confirmed that only two of the six people who came to his home actually entered the house. He said those two did not specifically state they were police officers.
However, he said he was under the impression that they were all police, since they were part of the group outside that identified themselves as SFPD officials…
…That’s why I let them in.”
Homeowner allowed the search, no warrant needed. The fact that he misunderstood the identity of some of the searchers is his fault for not pursuing the matter. According to his own account (in the article) neither of the two men who searched his house specifically identified themselves as officers. He just assumed they were.
A little dodgy on the part of the cops, perhaps, and if they’d decided to arrest him if they’d found it, they might have had an issue with a judge over it. Considering they found nothing, and he DID allow the search (by his own admission) no harm no foul, his rights were not violated.
So far Calderon is playing this situation perfectly by making it about whether or not Apple employees committed a crime, not about why Apple officials had tracked–via GPS–stolen property to his residence.
I can see this getting really nasty.
They may not have technically violated any laws (that remains to be seen), but this is bad nonetheless.
This is the second year running that Apple has managed to “misplace” a prototype iPhone in the wild. Add to that the seeming sliminess of this “search”, which by the way produced nothing, and it could spell PR backlash for Apple…
Apple’s HR department needs to put a new question on all employee application forms — “Are you a moron?”
How do you think he got hireed?
Exactly what I said in the earlier article. “breeze” suggested I grow up because it’s merely an embarrassment for the employee, rather than a fire-able offence, for losing a phone and causing this PR nightmare (which contrary to his rose-coloured view of the world, does have an impact in how Apple is perceived).
Exactly. I don’t think a crime was committed here (the homeowner willing let the PIs into his house), but this has the potential to blow up into a PR nightmare for Apple. If Apple knows what’s good for it, they’ll get out ahead of this. Probably by throwing the PI firm under the bus.
——RM
I think there is something inherently wrong about 6 people showing up at someone’s doorstep, identifying themselves as SFPD, and then the only ones who come in to search the house are the Apple employees. It should have been the responsibility of the police to inform Calderón that the people who searched his house where not police and that they worked for Apple. Regardless of whether or not he allowed them in his house, he allowed them in his house based on the assumption that they were all from the SFPD. This feels slimy on both Apple’s and the SFPD’s part. No wonder why there was conveniently no record of this search originally.
They should ave all stepped forward, one by one, and sung their Ida ala Mel Brooks
Just more proof that Apple has become the corporation that they railed against in their original 1984 commercial.