Lost iPhone 5: Bernal Heights Man Says Visitors Impersonating Police Searched His Home

[cory777]

Source: SF Weekly

A Bernal Heights man says that six officials claiming to be San Francisco Police officers questioned him and searched his family's home in July for a lost iPhone 5 prototype they asserted had been traced to the residence using GPS technology.

The man's statements to SF Weekly in an exclusive interview add significant new twists to the unfolding story of the unreleased iPhone 5 that was reportedly lost at a San Francisco restaurant this summer.

If accurate, his account raises the possibility that Apple security personnel attempting to recover the prototype falsely represented themselves as police officers -- a criminal act punishable by up to a year in jail in the state of California -- or that SFPD employees colluding with Apple failed to properly report an extensive search of a person's home, car, and computer.

"This is something that's going to need to be investigated now," SFPD spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield said, when informed about the Bernal Heights man's statements to SF Weekly. "If this guy is saying that the people said they were SFPD, that's a big deal."

Read more: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/09/lost_iphone_5_apple.php

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Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com/

[SlipperySlope]

1. Apple is a corporation. "Laws" aren't meant to apply to people like that.

Silly man. Laws aren't supposed to apply to corporations, only to "little people" like you and me. The homeowner should count his blessing that Apple didn't simply confiscate everything he owns and shoot his dog.

[Poll_Blind]

2. Holy shit, impersonating an officer of the law is a NO-NO

Yeesh. Good lord. The same tactic they may have used to achieve a corporate goal is also a tactic used as a precursor to burglary, abduction, rape & murder.

Hope Apple paid them $500,000/hr for the service, cause anything less and (if they did falsely impersonate) they are going to be eating the book.

PB

[Moonwalk]

5. As said, the story is wrong. No one was impersonating a police officer--

"Contrary to previous statements, SFWeekly reports that the San Francisco Police Department admits to assisting Apple investigators with the search of a lost iPhone 5. An earlier report suggested that Apple had acted on its own without the participation of the police department."

The police were plain clothes.

[petronius]

7. Doesn't that make the story sound somewhat worse?

It doesn't really take four plain-clothes officers to help corporate employees find an address, and if it wasn't made immensely clear to the homeowner that the police weren't there to search, investigate, or anything else I'd say the police massively and almost-certainly-illegally fucked up. And I'm more troubled by that then by a corporation acting corruptly...

(Assuming, of course, that the homeowner's account of what happened is accurate.)

[gkhouston]

8. Maybe they thought it would take four cops to intimidate

the homeowner into permitting a warrantless search.

[petronius]

9. Oh. Right. Why didn't I think of that? Okey-dokey then, nothin' to see here...

:)

(I do suspect you are very much not wrong.)

[gkhouston]

10. But here's the question: were they on the clock, or moonlighting for Apple? n/t

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

12. There is nothing unusual about police involvement

The company my girlfriend works for had the San Diego police accompany them to recover some property that had been stolen by an employee of their landlords HVAC contractor and sold on Craigslist.

The equipment phoned home and the police met their security people at the address and paid them a little visit.

[gkhouston]

14. I wouldn't think twice about it if they'd only sent 1 or 2 cops.

Four? What did they think they were walking into?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

16. I would imagine they wanted to see the new iPhone

Or they just had nothing better to do, the cops here send five cruisers to nab a meth addict jerking off in our parking lot.

[petronius]

13. The updated SFWeekly article seems to imply that they were on duty,

since it describes the Apple employees coming to the station to request help. Of course, it's possible that there were four off-duty officers just standing around who felt like going for a walk, but I doubt it.

Either way, SFPD needs to get to the bottom of it fast...

[DissedByBush]

3. Four were police officers

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/02/san-francisco-police-did-assist-apple-in-house-search-of-iphone-5/

[jerseyjack]

4. Impersonating an officer --- that's less serious than the

Republicians who are trying to impersonate human beings.

[Gman]

6. Corporate security is often made up of former law enforcement

former cops. And behind every "former" cop, there is always a very interesting story about why they're no longer a cop. So when they go to work as corporate security, the corporation is hiring some pretty bad people. "Normal" (for lack of a better word) cops are often some pretty messed up people. Former cops are the worst of the worst and they do shit like these Apple security people apparently did. So why is anyone surprised?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

11. this was supposed to be a reply to another post

[FreeState]

15. This has been proven false - the police were actual SF police officers

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/02/san-francisco-police-did-assist-apple-in-house-search-of-iphone-5/

SFWeekly suggests that there are some questions now why this incident was not recorded as per standard procedure. San Francisco Police Department spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield now says "Apple came to us saying that they were looking for a lost item, and some plainclothes officers responded out to the house with them. My understanding is that they stood outside. They just assisted Apple to the address."

The previous report had suggested that Apple investigators may have impersonated the police which is a criminal offense. It seems now that this was not the case.

An Apple employee reportedly lost this iPhone prototype in a restaurant/bar in late July. It seems, so far, that CNet's original account of the tale was accurate.

[Luminous Animal]

17. The SF Weekly is a pathetic rag. If it ever conducts investigative reporting, it is by mistake.

See post #15

[MilesColtrane]

18. SF Weakly

Did they even bother to try and find out the facts before publishing/posting?