Apple accused of impersonating police during effort to recover lost iPhone 5 prototype

By on Sep 2, 2011 at 3:46 PM
mobile September 2, 2011

This whole lost iPhone 5 prototype story just got whole lot more interesting. According to SF Weekly, six investigators claiming to be members of the San Francisco police department descended upon one Bernal Heights, San Francisco man’s home in search of a lost iPhone 5 prototype that CNET originally reported had been left in a bar. The scary part? The SFPD confirmed the investigators weren’t police officers at all. Instead, it appears as though they may have actually been members of Apple’s security team allegedly impersonating police officers. Read on for more.

UPDATE: The San Francisco Police Department has now confirmed to SFWeekly that it did in fact assist Apple security with the search. An update can be found here.

The officers in question claimed that they had traced the iPhone 5 to the man’s house using the device’s GPS feature. “They threatened me,” Sergio Calderon, the 22 year old man whose house was searched, said. “We don’t know anything about it, still, to this day,” he told SF Weekly. “They made it seem like they were on the phone with the owner of the phone, and they said ‘The person’s not pressing charges, they just want it back. They’ll give you $300,” he added.

Earlier on Friday, we reported that San Francisco’s police department did not currently have an open investigation into a lost iPhone prototype, despite CNET’s claims to the contrary. ”This is something that’s going to need to be investigated now,” Lieutenant Troy Dangerfield of the San Francisco police department told SF Weekly. “If this guy is saying that the people said they were SFPD, that’s a big deal.” Is Apple running a secret police force? Here’s where it gets really scary.

Reportedly, the police force that did investigate Calderon offered him a number to call if he found any more information on the device. SF Weekly called the number and Anthony Colon, an Apple employee answered the call. Colon is currently employed by Apple as a “senior investigator,” and he once worked for the San Jose police department.

It’s unclear where the story will turn from here, but it sounds like Apple certainly played a role in the incident. The San Francisco Police Department stated that it would only launch an investigation into the matter if Calderon decides to speak with them directly.

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  • zviera

    They should build a rehab instead of campus. On second thought, it looks like rehab.

  • Mario

    Police officers routinely moonlight as security personnel and then intentionally blur the lines as to what authority they’re operating under. I’m not condoning that; I’m just reporting it. This story may very well be true. It may also have nothing to do with Apple, and far more to do with the security people who showed up to that guy’s house.

  • Anonymous

    Those Bad Apples!

    Anyway, it wasn’t lost. It was “PreLeaked”. Welcome to the new Apple. Now if they had said whomever finds it gets a free toy (iPhone5)? What then . . . .

  • RaptorOO7

    Apple is starting to look like Monsanto (with their own goon squads) and threatening innocent people.  SF Police should investigate and charge the real criminals here, which if true would be Apple’s security team.

  • Anonymous

    SFPDgate

  • Sam Davis

    you should probably update your story to the truth.

  • Sam Davis

    hopefully it was just the 4s.

  • Roflmao

    I like Apple and all… but this is seriously crossing the line. The guy should seriously sue Apple. I really hope he does.

  • Anonymous

    The crApple Geshtapo at it’s best. From what I understand the crApple iPolice are the most elite of all the rent a cops. Supposedly each and every member has been personally interviewed by Jobsy and a very thurough criminal check is done to ascertain that they only buy and use iToys. The crApple Geshtapo are the most feared of all the iTards and are most dangerous when armed with a MacBook Air. Supposedly they use it like a throwing star and can decapitate a person with one toss. The iPolice are fearsome mindless creatures and should be avoided at all costs.

  • Anonymous

    The guy may just be an idiot. HE thought they were police. He would need some evidence to support that claim. They likely did show up on his doorstep and claim to be investigators. Who knows. If they used find my iphone app it very likely was in the house. Real police could / would of had a search warrant and found it.
    Big companies can be stupid but my money is that this guy is a clown. I hope that’s the case….

  • Guest

    You all are pretty naive for believing that this is actually true and not just a stunt by apple to tell people that they are in fact close to putting out the iPhone 5. Who in their right mind would think that the same stupid mistake would happen twice in a row. The reason the real police weren’t brought in was only because there was no phone actually lost.

  • Anonymous

    Funny how the “update” occupies a single line in the article that’s easy to skip over.

    Perhaps you should change the title to reflect the fact that SF police officers did actually go to the house, and the detective “plans to speak” to Sergio Calderon about his claims that it was Apple employees impersonating police officer.

    Hmmm, wonder if he’s going to get into trouble for making fale accusations?

  • Don

    Really, just who accused Apple of impersonating a police officer? Even with the update where the place now confirm it was them, you still don’t change the headline. Clearly, you don’t mind disregarding the facts and slanting the headline to get more clicks. I now know to regard your headlines as sensationalized click-bait. What’s really disappointing is seeing the many people commenting to this message area who believed your story without question and condemning Apple. They are the same people who pass along damaging emails without checking them for accuracy simply because they want to believe its true. Shame on them. If it sounds good and fits your agenda, print it!

  • ozziedog

    Ha apple is giving all the SF department free iPhones and iPad and whatever else they can give them to admit being part of the investigation. was the raid in the middle of the night? hahaha

  • Anonymous

    You know who else had their own secret police force? Hitler.

  • Soy

    Wow Tim Cook has only been CEO for like a week and already has a scandal. 

  • Anonymous

    Apple dont care what happens as long they hype their iphone.

  • OfficerOtoole

    Were the “police” wearing long black nightshirts and looking frail?

  • Anonymous

    so that they may use it as evidence in their next case with samsung. Look they copied it from the lost phone… 2X.. LIAR

  • epilo

    And some more free publicity for iPhone extracted from this non-story… Kudos Apple.

  • epilo

    BTW, 144th post on BGR of the iPhone 5, 5th post on this non-story itself.

    I wonder if all other smartphones/tablets together have as much exposure.

    Seems the iPhone truly is magical!

    Written on my spanking new bb 9900. Its not magical but I love it :)

  • Anonymous

    I find this very disturbing… a company makes the POLICE search things for them???

    I don´t know about US but in Europe this would be a case to get the Chief Officer fired…
    - If a company has lost something…they hire private security
    - If they have been stolen, they file an (official) complain

    But having the police to colaborate on a PHONE´s search… (it´s a PHONE!!!) I imagine many people being robbed and having no cops to attend to their problem as they are searching big companies toys.

    Yes, today it is more important to find lost phones than to protect (other) people´s lifes or robbed items. Even the Police is contributing to a big marketing madness.

  • Blkbear

    What I find interesting is, they can track the phone to an address, but can’t find the phone, make the phone alert/alarm/scream so that it can be heard and found? 

    Sure the phone could have been moved or even turned off, but you think that while it was being actively pin pointed, they could have done a ping for constant GPS location. I mean if I were releasing prototypes into the wild, I’d add a active track feature as well as a remote turn off block while it’s actively being tracked.

  • Anonymous

    APPLE is nothing but a greedy ass company. Now they see why everyone HATES THEIR GUTS

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