After Gray Powell lost a prototype iPhone 4 in 2010, history repeats itself

Sep 1, 2011 06:46 GMT  ·  By

Bars are to prototype iPhone testers like kryptonite is to Superman as yet another next-generation Apple device has been lost, this time in a Mexican restaurant and bar in San Francisco, California.

Reportedly taken from Cava 22 and allegedly sold on Craigslist for a meagre $200, the prototype device is said to be an iPhone 5.

No other details about the handset are known, such as the operating system it was running (more appropriately, the iOS version), or the size and shape of the phone.

What is known, apparently, is that Apple representatives contacted San Francisco police after learning of the incident.

Apple reps reportedly said the device was priceless and that the company was desperate to get it back.

Days into its loss the unit was reportedly traced electronically. It was located in a two-floor, single-family home in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood, according to a source talking to Cnet.

Apple investigators visited the house and spoke with a man in his twenties who said he had been at Cava 22 on the night the device went missing, but denied any knowledge of the phone.

Police was given permission to search the house and, as expected, they found nothing.

However, Apple employees were so determined to get the device back, they actually offered the man money to hand it over, no questions asked, according to the source.

The man continued to deny he had any knowledge of the device.

Interestingly, the owner of Cava 22, Jose Valle, said in a interview that he hadn’t been contacted on the matter, neither by the police, nor by Apple.

Who did contact him was a man who called multiple times about a lost iPhone about a month ago.

Valle reportedly told the man that if he heard anything, he would call him back.

"I guess I have to make my drinks a little less strong," Valle said.