The iPhone 4G finder Brian Hogan who sold his 'find" to Gizmodo was turned into police by his roommate, Katherine Martinson, who called Apple after Hogan connected the errant iPhone 4 to her computer. The iPhone 4G prototype was returned to Apple and Brian Hogan regretted his mistake. But here is more to the story.
The police affidavit shows that police retrieved from Gizmodo's editor Brian Chen, computer related equipment including a Macbook Pro, iPad, Droid by Motorola, and iPhone 16 GB.Gizmodo's Brian Lam, told Steve Jobs, in an off the record email that Apple PR had been cold to Gizmodo. When the iPhone 4G was returned it had a broken ribbon cable, an electrical short due to wrongly screwed screw, broken back plate snaps and stripped screws.
The 10-page
search-warrant affidavit was unsealed Friday at the request
of Wired.com and others. Apple employee, Robert "Gray" Powell lost his iPhone 4G prototype in a bar that was found by Brian Hogan.
The affidavit reports that Steve Jobs personally contacted Gizmodo
to ask for the phone back. Martinson said Hogan told her he
received a total of $8,500 for the phone and Gizmodo promised Hogan a bonus if and when Apple officially
announced the product. Hogan also told her that he contacted Gizmodo, Engadget and PC World trying to sell the 'found" iPhone 4G.
Apple discovered that Hogan was the person who found the iPhone, from a phone tip from roommmate, Katherine Martinson. Martinson turned Hogan in, because he connected it to her laptop and
she thought that Apple would be able to trace her
Internet IP address as a result.
Apple employees took
Martinson's tip directly to the district attorney's office.
Martinson
later, told police that
Hogan and his other roommate, Thomas Warner, wereremoving evidence from their Redwood City apartment: a computer,
stickers from the iPhone, a thumb drive and a memory card. Police
didn't make in time but found Hogan at his parent's house in Redwood
City.
When police told Hogan that removing
evidence implied "consciousness of guilt," Hogan agreed to cooperate,
and phoned his friend Warner, who had taken the computer gear and the
stickers away in his car.
The stickers were lost at
a gas station which were found by Police.