Posted on 04/26/2010 4:17:17 PM PDT by Smogger
Cops break open front door and seize computers in investigation of lost iPhone prototype.
It looks like the police are taking this pretty seriously.
Armed with a search warrant, members of California's Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team broke into a private home Friday night and seized computers and other electronic equipment, according to a report posted Monday on Gizmodo.
The home belonged to Jason Chen, the Gizmodo editor who published photographs and videos of a top secret prototype iPhone left at a bar by a young Apple engineer. Gizmodo has admitted paying $5,000 for the device, which it turned over on request to Apple (AAPL), but only after cracking it open and publishing details about its parts and specifications.
It's not clear at this time whether Apple or the local district attorney initiated the investigation. Apple has not replied to a request for clarification.
The search warrant, signed by a San Mateo County Superior Court judge, said the equipment seized may have been used to commit a felony.
"My wife and I drove to dinner and got back at about 9:45," begins Chen's description of the event. "When I got home I noticed that the garage door was half open, and when I tried to open it, officers came out and said they had a warrant to search my house and any vehicles on the property 'in my control.' Then they made me place my hands behind my head and searched me to make sure I had no weapons or sharp objects on me."
Photocopies of the warrant and a list of the equipment seized (including one box of business cards for "suspect chen") are available here. Chen's full statement below the fold.
(Excerpt) Read more at tech.fortune.cnn.com ...
“And something accidentally left behind does not automatically become free for the taking. “
I agree with the above, but the above is neither what I posted, nor what happened.
Remember the attempts to return it and Apple’s response?
And he'd still not have stolen anything.
So far, everything has been Apple's fault, for # 1, leaving something that is supposed to be secret at some bar, so anyone at all could find it, examine it, and check it out, and # 2, not telling their receptionists or telephone people to be on the look out for anyone trying to return such a device.
You leave your product in some bar, then refuse to accept it back when the finder tries to return it, then your product becomes abandoned property. No one stole anything from you.
not the case here.
They had a bricked phone.
Theft is simply not the crime here. What was the crime the search war. alleged?
It's not going to get get easier on the finder, or the guy who photographed the innards!
“Mens rea?” You mean, I know this is a unreleased prototype, so I will pay 5 large for it, take it apart, and post everything on the internet? That mens rea?”
Opening up anything is still legal, once one has color of title.
They did have color of title, given Apple’s acts. Apple DID NOT ACCEPT a legitimate attempt at returning the phone.
This new iPhone device will be sold at a price above the current market for such items. The current top end iPhone, the 32GB1 starts at $2992 ~ a backpack full of those suckers is worth as much as most automobiles!
I get this feeling that the device is in that category of things about which the cops get serious!
Try that one someday.
It’s a $3,000 device ~ your say so about a telephoned “OK” really isn’t good enough. Let’s see your title, or at least the warranty package ~ you did purchase Apple product insurance for it didn’t you? I mean, like what if it breaks then where are you?
Friend of mine stopped-by the other day . . . says he found a M1A2 Abrams in the woods behind his house. Says he called the Pentagon switchboard, and they just laughed. I bought it from him for five thousand bucks. It is now mine. MINE, I tell you!
Oh rubbish!
It was abandoned property. Anyone could have photographed it when it was left at the bar, and posted it online at some site in in the US or even in Russia or China, and there is nothing Apple could have done about it. The moment you abandon it, and refuse to accept it back, anyone can do whatever the heck they want with it.
Sorry, Dell XPS 16 running an Intel i7 here. Fail.
You say "Oh, yeah, sure, you took my car while my back was turned. I'd rather collect on the insurance"
Which is pretty much what I think you'd say after a couple of beers anyway.
That still doesn't give me a good title to your car. Something else is required.
Legal citation to follow, I'm sure.
/s
I think our cultural obsessions with the latest technological gadget, software or American Idol contestants and Larrys Kings love life come at the expense of much more important issues. These things are reflective of our collective ignorance and are very unhealthy for us. Rome is burning but the orgy proceeds apace.
Nice try.
Now why don't we just take that further?
You leave your car in parking lot, you pay for use of the parking lot. Your car is under the protection of the guys that run the parking lot. If someone takes your car from that parking lot, that is theft.
On the other hand, you drop a $50 note on the street, someone comes along and sees it and picks it up, that is NOT theft. If the guy tries to return the money, and the alleged ownder refuses to take the money back, it becomes abandoned property, and the money reverts to the guy that found the money.
Get it?
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