This is a stretch.
We'll see, for how it pans out, but it's apparently not "a stretch" for California law... and I think that's what the police are going on, plus the fact that the guy made a big deal about violating the law in a real big public article. The police get real "testy" about those kinds of things -- if someone "flouts the law" in public and publishes something about how they "got away with it" and/or are on TV... :-)
I missed the "got away with it" quote.
A moron lost a phone in a bar. Someone found it and thought it might be worth something to a media outlet. When the lawyers asked for it back, they got it back. Screw the emotions of the LEOs.
If Gizmodo was the NYT, this would not have happened.