Another Apple iPhone prototype has gone missing

Another Apple iPhone prototype has gone missing, again lost by an Apple employee in a bar, CNET is reporting. The device, supposedly a prototype of the upcoming iPhone 5, apparently still hasn't been recovered.
The unconfirmed incident strangely mirrors the infamous loss of an iPhone 4 prototype last year, although this time things are less definitive. Whereas last year, the prototype was obtained by a tech blog and revealed for the world to see, so far no photos or details about the phone have come out. CNET reports that it's not known what the device looks like or what operating system it's running.
The chain of events, as reported, goes like this: Sometime in late July, a person testing the iPhone, presumably an Apple employee, accidentally left the device at San Francisco Mexican restaurant called Cava 22. Since then Apple has been "scrambling" to get the device back, managing to track it to electronically to a two-floor home in the city's Bernal Heights neighborhood. The twentysomething man who apparently lived there said he was at the restaurant on the night the prototype went missing but denied any knowledge of it, even when Apple offered him money if he produced the phone, no questions asked.
CNET goes on to say the phone may have been sold on Craigslist for $200. All of the information appears to have come from a single source "familiar with the investigation."
When contacted by PCMag, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department couldn't confirm or deny if there was a police report about the incident. He said it was relatively routine to work with a private company's security when investigating a theft, but couldn't think of another case where company reps accompanied uniformed officers into a private residence. Apple didn't respond to a request for comment, and calls to the bar, Cava 22, weren't returned.

It all sounds eerily familiar. Last year after an Apple engineer, Gray Powell, accidentally left an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar, the finder quickly recognized what he had and sold it to Gizmodo. The tech blog then proceeded to reveal the phone to the world, posting photos and a teardown weeks before the official release. Although Gizmodo and its staff escaped charges in the incident, the San Mateo District Attorney's Office charged two people, Brian Hogan, 22, and Sage Wallower, 28, with misappropriation of lost property and possession of stolen property earlier this month.
For more on what the iPhone 5 might be, check out our roundup of the most likely rumors, a look at six technologies that most likely won't be in iPhone 5, and why the phone, whatever it ends up being, probably won't have LTE network technology.