The guy who found it tried to return it to the morons at Apple severals times.
http://gizmodo.com/5520729/why-apple-couldnt-get-the-lost-iphone-back
Seems to me that if the guy tried to give it back and Apple wouldn’t take it, the phone was abandoned property. Where’s the theft?
The guy who found it tried to return it to the morons at Apple severals times.
Unfortunately for that guy, it doesn't change the law as it applies to him and the writer. If you think that someone is the owner and they tell you that they are not, then you have to find who the owner is.
Instead of doing that, he appropriated the device for himself, sold it and someone else appropriated the lost device for themselves and bought it.
Hence, the crime ... which it is, under California law... :-)