[1rudeboy]

The only people who screwed up here are Apple by # 1, leaving their supposedly “secret” phone in some bar where anyone could examine it and see exactly what it was about,
Yes, for the most part . . . but consider this: you leave your gun at the bar and someone gets shot with it . . . are you guilty of murder, or negligence? Answer carefully, because you are weak with analogies.

and # 2, failing to instruct their official switchboard to accept their phone back, in case the honest person that found it, called in and tried to return the phone.
That's just laughable. How many "official" switchboards does Apple have?

[SmokingJoe]

but consider this: you leave your gun at the bar and someone gets shot with it . . . are you guilty of murder, or negligence? Answer carefully, because you are weak with analogies.

You just gotta keep coming up with these really stupid analogies don't you? No one took Apple's smartphone and used it to shot anyone with it or used it to bash anyone over the haed with it. The phone was supposed to be a secret phone. The moment you leave it openly in some bar, it's not a secret anymore. Anyone in the bar, the cleaners whoever can examine it and see what it's about and let out the secrats about it. It's your fault and your own carelessness and stupidity that made you leave a supposedly secret phone where anyone could examine it. Don’t blame anyone else but yourself for being careless and foolish.

[SmokingJoe]

That's just laughable. How many “official” switchboards does Apple have?

Why don't you tell me?
If a company has lost the secret prototype of their most important current product, and the guy that found it repeatedly calls the company headquarters to try and return it, and the company just keeps refusing to take it back, while denying that they even lost the product in the first place, who's fault is it?