14 DAY TRIAL // The San Francisco Police Department has confirmed its involvement in the search for a lost iPhone prototype with spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfeld telling the press that "three or four" officers accompanied two Apple security officials to a suspect’s home in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights area.
Dangerfield said “Apple came to us saying that they were looking for a lost item, and some plainclothes officers responded out to the house with them.”
The statement came after the SFPD had initially denied any involvement in the search of a lost iPhone prototype, according to SF Weekly.
“My understanding is that they stood outside...They just assisted Apple to the address,” said Dangerfield.
Dangerfeld said police officers and Apple’s security visited 22-year-old Sergio Calderón who had been led to believe that everyone was a police officer, as he recalled.
None of them had identified themselves as working for Apple, Calderón said.
"When they came to my house, they said they were SFPD," he said. "I thought they were SFPD. That's why I let them in."
The 22-year-old man recalls being threatened by the police: "One of the officers is like, 'Is everyone in this house an American citizen?' They said we were all going to get into trouble," he explained.
The SFPD spokesperson, however, said there had been no indication that Apple's security had represented themselves under false pretenses.
"I don't have any indication of that. I'm not going to go there," he said. Calderón added that as soon as the water would clear a bit, he would speak with Calderón personally to see if he can learn more.
It is becoming clear that the story of a second iPhone prototype getting lost in a bar is true, not a media fabrication.
However, it remains to be seen whether Apple will be getting back their phone, or whether it will fall into the hands of someone who has their way around with a torx screwdriver and a camera.