Strange Search For iPhone 4S Prototype Apparently Closes With Settlement From Apple
by Brent Dirks
April 5, 2012
The wild and wacky story of the search for a lost prototype iPhone 4S has apparently come to a close.
As we reported last year, the house of San Francisco resident Sergio Calderón was searched for an iPhone 4S prototype lost in a local bar. Who did the searching was the larger point of contention.
At first, it was believed that Apple security officers posed as law enforcement to enter Calderón's home. But San Francisco police then admitted that Apple's personnel were actually accompanied by law enforcement during the search, which came up empty.
No search warrant was issued because Calderón voluntarily allowed his home to be searched, believing that all of the personnel were police.
MacRumors now points to a Network World interview with the lawyer for Calderón. The lawyer, David Monroe, originally said that a lawsuit would be filed against Apple sometime around the beginning of 2012. But the Network World author was unable to get much information in an exchange about the lawsuit status:
"I have no comment about that," he replied. I asked if there had been a settlement between Apple and his client, Sergio Calderon. "I have no comment about that." I mentioned the bit about him saying in December that a lawsuit was then imminent -- within a few weeks -- and asked what had changed since then. "I have no comment about that." I was about to try a fourth round but by then we were both chuckling over the futility of the exercise.And just as the Network World author suspected, Monroe's inability to comment is a very strong sign that Apple settled with his client. A standard non-disclosure agreement was apparently part of the deal. The lost prototype was the second in as many years. More infamously, what became the iPhone 4 was lost by Apple engineer Gray Powell in another San Francisco watering hole. The phone ended up in the hands of the Gizmodo blog, which unveiled the phone almost two months before its official release by Apple.