Apple picker Brian Hogan was twenty-one when he was at a bar in Silicon Valley in 2010 found a prototype iPhone 4 in a bar. Now he has answered questions about the whole case in the "Ask Me Anything" section on Reddit. After finding the prototype at the Bar Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City (where it had been forgotten by Apple engineer Gray Powell), he agreed with the Gizmodo server to sell the found prototype for eight thousand dollars. Which is an amount Hogan never received.
“They told me at Gizmodo that they would give me five thousand dollars for the story and another three thousand after everything was confirmed by Apple. They knew there was no way I was going to be able to claim the other three grand when the story aired, which I didn't. I ended up having to hire a lawyer, to whom I had to pay a lot more than five thousand.'
Hogan and his friend Robert Sage Wallower, who helped him organize the sale of Gizmodo, were charged with embezzlement, but convicted of only some counts, and both had to perform forty hours of community service and pay a $125 fine. The Reddit thread that Hogan started is still open so everyone can ask Hogan their own questions. Here's a sample of what Hogan responded to one of the questions:
Question: So Gizmodo ripped you off? Bastards! Have you ever thought that you should have contacted companies like Samsung or HTC to see if they would be interested in buying the phone?
Brian Hogan: Yeah, they were interested. But back then everything happened very fast and after the battle everyone is a general.
It's likely that Gizmodo agreed to pay for the phone before being warned by its own lawyers that it would be buying back a stolen item, but that's a conversation that clearly should have happened before, not after, Gizmodo made Hogan the offer and published the full story .
Question: Do I understand correctly that you were threatened with legal action for accidentally finding that device?
Brian Hogan: There was/still is the threat of me being sued for this, but they have nothing to actually sue me for.
So it's unlikely that Apple will pursue a lawsuit against Hogan. Hogan further wrote that he was tracked down by police thanks to his roommate, who was asking for a reward for information.
Question: How long did it take for them to find you?
Brian Hogan: It took about three weeks in total for the police to track me down. Turns out my roommate was talking to the police the whole time, giving them everything they wanted and trying to get a reward. She took pictures of all my things, recorded conversations and lied about some things so the police could prepare the worst things for me. She told them I guess I knew what was going on and they came.
Hogan said the phone was initially functional but was later locked, possibly through remote access from Apple. The employee who lost the phone was fired but later rehired. Hogan said he holds no grudge against Apple, but currently owns and uses Android.
Here you can read the whole article.
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For God's sake, lately it seems to me that Jablíčkář has better articles... What's going on with you? The only articles that can be read are written by Mr. Lévay.