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Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5

By | September 2, 2011, 1:34pm PDT

Summary: Apple CEO Tim Cook may have to put out a fire over the lost iPhone 5 prototype saga.

Credit: James Martin, CNET

Apple CEO Tim Cook may have to deal with his first real crisis if reports about company security officers impersonating cops turn out to be true.

According to SF Weekly, the man at the center of lost iPhone 5 story said that six officials he thought were San Francisco police officers searched his home in July. SF Weekly reports:

If accurate, his account raises the possibility that Apple security personnel attempting to recover the prototype falsely represented themselves as police officers — a criminal act punishable by up to a year in jail in the state of California — or that SFPD employees colluding with Apple failed to properly report an extensive search of a person’s home, car, and computer.

CNET News this week reported that an unreleased iPhone 5 prototype was lost at Cava 22, a bar in the Mission District. As Jason O’Grady noted lightning strikes twice given that Apple’s iPhone 4 was also lost. The iPhone 5 prototype tale turned into a national story.

Now a lost prototype isn’t exactly a crisis for Cook, but the events that follow could become a major headache. According to Sergio Calderon, the man at the center of the lost iPhone 5 story, six people wearing badges showed up to look for a lost iPhone that was traced to him via GPS. SF Weekly also reports that these folks said they were from the San Francisco Police Department.

Losing a prototype is one thing. Impersonating the cops is another matter entirely. Now that SF Weekly has connected this lost iPhone 5 saga to Anthony Colon, an Apple investigator, this flap could turn out to be a real problem.

After Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO, Cook probably thought his next big item was to launch the iPhone 5. Now it looks like Cook’s first big chore will be putting out fires related to the lost iPhone 5 prototype.

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Topics

Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Apple iPhone 5, SF Weekly, Smart Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: the perceived slight OT
kenosha77a 4th Sep
@WinTard

That's OK. No offense was taken. BTW, I always look forward to your quotes after your comments.
View in thread
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Sold for $200?
oncall 2nd Sep
OK already I am thinking this guys been drinking too much. I mean he could have sold pictures of it for far more than that.
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No Big Deal. If true, this is what Tim Cook does.
kenosha77a 2nd Sep
If true, Tim does the following. He fires the Apple Security Chief. Tim then publishes a Corporate Policy Decree stating that henceforth, this type of behavior will not be part of Apple official policy.

Crisis solved. The Blogsphere moves on to something else in 24 hours and in 7 days, this event will be completely forgotten.

This possible scenario would happen at any corporation, by the way.
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RE: No Big Deal. If true, this is what Tim Cook does.
WinTard Updated - 2nd Sep
@kenosha7777

However, if illegal action took place on behalf of Apple, Apple is still liable as the instigator, and sponsor of such illegal activities. (Think mafia boss).

Just firing people won't make the illegal activities go away.

Even in a limited corporation, executives and the board of directors are not beyond the strong arm of the law if criminal acts are being committed, even if they claim they had no such knowledge of said illegal activities. Ignorance of the law isnt a valid defense or excuse.

And somebody is ultimately responsible? Who would that be? I wonder?

Anyway, everybody knows what is at the end of a colon, and what comes out of it?

Good luck, in the court of public opinion, and also that of the law.

~~~~~~~~~~
You may make mistakes, but you are not a failure until you start blaming someone else.
~ Mary Pickford
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WOW... Apologist much?
SonofaSailor Updated - 2nd Sep
@kenosha7777

Where were you when Enron, Tyco, Lehman Bros. had their debacles???

According to your 'brilliant' idea, they could have just fired the execs responsible, issued a Corporate Decree and they could've gone right on doing business as usual, huh?

And to think... if only Bernie Madoff had fired the Risk Manager for his fund, and issued a stern statement saying Ponzi Schemes will not be tolerated... he wouldn't be spending the rest of his life in jail.
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RE: Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5
kenosha77a Updated - 2nd Sep
@SonofaSailor

You assume Tim Cook authorized this purported illegal activity or masterminded it as Bernie Madoff did with his ponzi schemes.

Really, SonofaSailor, you should know better than to assume that this was the only possible interpretation for this media report. (You should have waited just a bit longer to understand this topic's developing story before publishing your rant against Apple or myself.)

Again, you use an example depicting Bernie Madoff and Tim Cook as brothers, so to speak, in illegal activities? Really, and you accuse me of being an apologist using this type of logic. You should go back to school and learn something.
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RE: Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5
HypnoToad72 3rd Sep
@kenosha7777 -

it is an amusing parallel.

But something illegal happened somewhere if the police become involved... the police don't like it if you call them in for something that isn't an illegal act...

@SonofaSailor -

I suspect someone at the top decided, "Well, this viral marketing tactic worked so great last time, we'll do it again. Even at the same location."

Given this is the same company that promoted iPad2 so ingeniously with
"Thinner. Lighter. Faster. FaceTime. Smart Covers. 10 hour battery" - usually the word gimmick gets stale the moment you add more than 3 adjectives/nouns and they're shoving down 6.

I doubt Cook would end up in jail over this song and dance going on. Nor should he. But somebody will be fired - it's not easy to guess who that unlucky person will be.

Par for the course.
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RE: Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5
Gisabun 2nd Sep
@kenosha7777 : And if you believe every employee will follow that policy, the Houston Astros will win the World Series THIS year. There are policies in companies not to download anything iullegally or install anything without permission, but people will still do.
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RE: Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5
kenosha77a 2nd Sep
@Gisabun

And what happens to those employees that disobey those guidelines? In your worldview, there are no consequences for illegal corporate actions. Interesting.
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Partly right, partly completely wrong.
Cayble Updated - 3rd Sep
@kenosha7777
"This possible scenario would happen at any corporation, by the way."

What?? Are you referring to the issue of the possibility that Apple security people represented themselves as police officers and "BROKE INTO" a person residence to search the place?

If so you either spend way to much time watching conspiracy theory movies or your part of some security team at a big corporation who's hoping this can somehow begin to be thought of as common place behavior.

This WOULD NOT happen at any corporation. No sir. you are way way off base on that. So far off base your not even in the game. The vast majority of corporations would be terrified to do something so brainless and callous as to send a security team into a persons residence to execute a search under the guise of being the real police. Its obviously completely illegal, and might I add, just the kind of illegal that the police really take a very serious view toward. It always kind of sticks in the craw of the police to see people, in particular police officer wanna-be's committing a criminal act under the pretense that they are police officers.

And ya, "Timmy" should do all of the above quickly if this really happened and then he should grit his teeth and hope the thorough investigation of this by the police doesn't turn up that this was some kind of official policy he had complete knowledge of and approved the security action in question. If the police do find this out then his next job should be to fire himself and get ready for a stay in the crowbar hotel.

This is despicable behavior and anyone who cant feel outraged that any company thinks they have the right to do this apparently places no value on their personal freedom and privacy.
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Sometimes I despair over the reading comprehension of some talkback posters
kenosha77a Updated - 3rd Sep
@Cayble

My possible scenario referred to an official response and corrected action by Tim Cook over an illegal activity by Apple Corporation personal. (Which apparently never occurred. But I'll get back to that in a moment.)

And, BTW, let's assume that this highly improbable event occurred. That is, the Chief of Security for Apple, upon getting information that the GPS signal from a "lost" iPhone 5 prototype indicated it's location, proceeded to call his men and women under his command together and say "Well Guys. Let's get our fake Police Badges and head on over to this residence and take back our iPhone prototype if it is there. And let's make sure we don't tell anyone about this action, especially don't tell the local police or ask for their assistance with our illegal breaking and entering so we can all becomes Corporate Celebrities when we return."

Yeh, only idiots would take the word of the man in procession of the "lost" iPhone giving this story and believe that something like this really would occur.

But I digress.

You have to ask yourself, Cayble, if you were running ANY Corporation, let alone Apple, and something illegal happened without your sanction or approval this question. What do you do?

I gave an opinion about what actions would constitute necessary corrected action. I'll spell those out for you since you seem to have trouble with your reading comprehension.

The actions outlined in my post would be to fire those responsible; issue a public statement; outline Corporate policy and, if need be, strengthen those policies and then move on.

What was so hard about understanding that?
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Of course, if Tim Cook sanctioned this action in the first place
kenosha77a 2nd Sep
Then this becomes a very big deal. But I don't expect that this occurred.
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RE: Of course, if Tim Cook sanctioned this action in the first place
WinTard 2nd Sep
@kenosha7777
Sorry, I missed this one before replying chronologically.
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Well, you can count on one thing....
Cayble 3rd Sep
@kenosha7777
It would be a bizarre turn of events in corporate America if he came out and said he sanctioned it. Nobody in his position sells themselves out to the wolves, guilty or innocent.
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I'll keep this one example based in Silicon Valley
kenosha77a 3rd Sep
@Cayble

HP CEO, Mark Hurd, resigns over violations of Corporate ethical conduct.
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RE: Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5
WinTard 4th Sep
@kenosha7777

And goes to work for Oracle no less! Where his kind of ethics will be well rewarded.

(Sorry for the slight OT)

~~~~~~~~~~
We can?t be successful unless we lie to customers.
~ Larry Ellison, Oracle cofounder reportedly quoted by Bruce Scott
(Just Google it for substantiation)
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RE: the perceived slight OT
kenosha77a 4th Sep
@WinTard

That's OK. No offense was taken. BTW, I always look forward to your quotes after your comments.
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Best thing for Apple is to identify the 6 and give them the boot.
Johnny Vegas 2nd Sep
They also need to boot any higher UPS that knew about it before hand or after and kept their mouths shut. All employment is mutually terminated at will, they don't need cause. Doesn't matter if they are convicted or not. No internal "investigation" needed. They know who the 6 are and if they're still apple employees next week Tim Cook will have EPIC FAIL stamped all over his first high profile executive situation.
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Why would this possibly be an EPIC FAIL?
ShazAmerica 2nd Sep
@Johnny Vegas

Let's look at another of couple high profile executives, that were caught red-handed, and tried and convicted for their crimes. In their own testimony, both spoken and in email, it was discovered that they extorted other companies, strong armed OEM's to bend to their will, illegally put other companies out of business, and used their monopolistic position in the market to illegally crush competitors. The judge in the case compared these guys to columbian drug lords and mafia kingpins. And let's not forget the crap they peddled cost customers and businesses billions upon billions of dollars in down time and inflated prices (Y2K anyone?)

Those two guys are both around today, as a matter of fact, Balmer still leads the company. The other partner in crime gave a pittance of his stolen money to charity to help rehabilitate his image.

Who was booted from Microsoft? Anyone?
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RE: Why would this possibly be an EPIC FAIL?
WinTard 2nd Sep
@ShazAmerica

Nice red-herring drawing Microsoft into this debacle...

~~~~~~~~~~
Don't count your chickens until they hatch. And don't blame my cat. He has an airtight alibi .
~ Maxine
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Ah yes...
SonofaSailor 2nd Sep
@ShazAmerica

Because if Apple and it's idiot fanbois can point to someone else that's done something... that negates anything and everything that could be even be percieved as wrongdoing on Apple's part.

It's good to see that even though Steve Jobs is gone, his legacy of "well everyone else is doing it too" crybaby whining is still strong.
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I believe the correct response to you would be
Mister Spock 2nd Sep
@ShazAmerica
"Stupid much>", if I got the colloquialism correct.

plain
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RE: Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5
Gisabun 2nd Sep
@ShazAmerica : I guess we know that you are a fanboi. Apple can never do anything wrong. I guess maybe you think this was some type of plot by Microsoft to make Apple foolish? They can do that on their own. Once is bad. But twice? Idiotic.
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THIS IS A RESIDENTIAL BREAK AND ENTER!!!!
Cayble 3rd Sep
@ShazAmerica
This isn't just a corporate shilling of the public in general, this is a specific action against the privacy of a citizen RIGHT IN HIS OWN HOME. HOME INVASION.

But I guess you have no idea how serious that is in the law now these days.
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OOPs, Nevermind
peteyoung@... 2nd Sep
It appears that the police were real, and they were accompanied by two Apple employees. The San Francisco Police, after first denying they had any officers involved have since found the records of the visit.
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RE: Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5
WinTard 2nd Sep
@peteyoung@...
Well that's competency and efficiency I suppose?

Now, what were civilian mercenaries doing alongside with police officers on official legal business? So now the San Francisco Police becomes a sub-department of the Apple Police? Collusion anyone?

Quick, call the repo man! They respect the law no doubt.

~~~~~~~~~~
Fascism should be more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
~ Benito Mussolini (1883 - 1945)
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RE: Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5
HypnoToad72 3rd Sep
@WinTard -

good reminders.

If I lost something and called the police, I'd hear an earful about how it's not their job to track things down for me.

Maybe Apple can put up a bunch of "Lost, reward" signs - which also doubles as more viral marketing. (Hey Apple, hire me to do your marketing...)

Or maybe Apple can hire a few more lobbyists...
http://www.tuaw.com/2011/04/10/apple-lawyers-up-in-d-c-to-stave-off-antitrust-issues/

They managed to build themselves up on their own so why do they need to get special treatment now? Bootstraps, baby, surely they can buy our own and not need taxpayer handouts?

Especially when they save enough by offshoring all the work and turning a blind eye when the workers, in those conditions...

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/is-apples-suicide-factory-outsourcing-to-even-cheaper-chinese-peasants/9537
(more than Apple exploits Foxconn, but for a Christian nation that likes to bestow Democracy(tm) around the world, it's interesting how America "helps" everyone... except the countries they offshore the most to...
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RE: OOps, Nevermind
WinTard 2nd Sep
@peteyoung@...

The SFGate said: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/09/lost_iphone_5_apple.php
SF Weekly has now spoken with Sergio Calder?n, 22, of Bernal Heights, who believes his was the home referred to in the CNET article. Calder?n got in touch with us yesterday in an effort to clarify who, exactly, had searched his home on an evening in July.

"They threatened me," he said during an interview at his house. "We don't know anything about it, still, to this day."

Calder?n said that at about 6 p.m. six people -- four men and two women -- wearing badges of some kind showed up at his door. "They said, 'Hey, Sergio, we're from the San Francisco Police Department.'" He said they asked him whether he had been at Cava 22 over the weekend (he had) and told him that they had traced a lost iPhone to his home using GPS.

Even if four real police officers were present, what about the two others "wearing badges"? Apple employees wearing police badges?

The plot thickens...

~~~~~~~~~~
The history of mankind is a history of the subjugation and exploitation of a great majority of people by an elite few by what has been appropriately termed the 'ruling class'. The ruling class has many manifestations. It can take the form of a religious orthodoxy, a monarchy, a dictatorship of the proletariat, outright fascism, or, in the case of the United States, corporate-statism. In each instance the ruling class relies on academics, scholars and 'experts' to legitimize and provide moral authority for its hegemony over the masses.
~ Ed Crane
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This is quickly evolving into a blogsphere Tempest In A Teapot Affair
kenosha77a 2nd Sep
Oh where is Napolean Solo and Illya Kuryakin when we need them!
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RE: Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5
WinTard 2nd Sep
@kenosha7777
I loved that show, the Man from U.N.C.L.E !

Not to be pedantic, but it is Napoleon...
https://encrypted.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=gsis%2Ci18n%3Dtrue&cp=32&gs_id=6&xhr=t&q=napoleon+solo+and+illya+kuryakin

~~~~~~~~~~
A branding program should be designed to differentiate your cow from all the other cattle on the range. Even if all the cattle on the range look pretty much alike.
~ Al Ries
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RE: Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5
kenosha77a 2nd Sep
@WinTard

Damm automatic web browser spell checkers!

BTW, after looking at a Wikipedia article on that show and discovering this, please check out the following web site. www.theunclegun.com

Amazing what some fans will do to perpetuate an ideal.
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More incompitence and bad security at Apple
Gisabun 2nd Sep
happy
0 Votes
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thanks
tutuklu 2nd Sep
thanks http://www.tutuklu.com good
0 Votes
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RE: Apple's Cook faces first flap over lost iPhone 5
Rick_Kl 3rd Sep
So much for this being an illegal search. The SFPD admitted to sending officer to the address.
http://www.slashgear.com/apple-iphone-5-investigators-had-police-escort-sfpd-admits-03176790/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+slashgear+%28SlashGear%29
0 Votes
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