Apple’s Jobs Asked Gizmodo to Return ‘Stolen’ IPhone Prototype

Hoofbite

Well-Known Member
Messages
40,575
Reaction score
11,172
Bob Sacamano;3402864 said:
No, which is why I'm trying to figure out how you can find something that someone lost, admittedly. And still be branded a thief. It's outrageous. Unless there is some Good Samaritan law that I'm unaware of.

Apple doesn't think it was lost. They think it was stolen.
 

Bob Sacamano

Benched
Messages
57,084
Reaction score
3
Hoofbite;3402870 said:
Apple doesn't think it was lost. They think it was stolen.

Well in their statement they claim their engineer lost it, so...

That's a pretty huge caveat.

It would be different if dude got up and went to the bathroom, and other dude creeped up and came up off his ****.
 

vta

The Proletariat
Messages
8,753
Reaction score
11
Bob Sacamano;3402866 said:
Most definitely. It's up to me whether I decide to return it or not. If I don't, I'm just a jerk. Not a thief.

Steve Jobs is just another crybaby nerd.

:laugh1:

We might have to defer to Theo as the lawyer in residence, because I don't how it plays out in the law itself, but I'm guessing if it were discovered that you'd found something that was knowingly the property of someone else, you'd be considered more than just a jerk.
 

theogt

Surrealist
Messages
45,846
Reaction score
5,912
Bob Sacamano;3402866 said:
Most definitely. It's up to me whether I decide to return it or not. If I don't, I'm just a jerk. Not a thief.

Steve Jobs is just another crybaby nerd.
California law says you are a thief. And you can be prosecuted.
 

Doomsday

Rising Star
Messages
19,813
Reaction score
16,101
You cant just keep stuff you find, you have an obligation to report it as found and if no one claims it within a certain time frame then you become the owner. You have to at least make a reasonable effort to locate the owner. Clearly these people knew the product belonged to Apple and decided to keep it anyway, that is stealing.
 

rkell87

Well-Known Member
Messages
8,443
Reaction score
880
Bob Sacamano;3402866 said:
Most definitely. It's up to me whether I decide to return it or not. If I don't, I'm just a jerk. Not a thief.

Steve Jobs is just another crybaby nerd.

Doomsday;3402908 said:
You cant just keep stuff you find, you have an obligation to report it as found and if no one claims it within a certain time frame then you become the owner. You have to at least make a reasonable effort to locate the owner. Clearly these people knew the product belonged to Apple and decided to keep it anyway, that is stealing.
this


i am almost certain(especially in the case of money) that you are required by law to turn in any money found, to the police and if no one claims it after X amount of time it becomes yours.
 

CliffnDallas

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,484
Reaction score
215
The idiot that found it should have given it to the bar owner as a lost and found. Then asked that if it was not claimed within a certain amount of time given to him. If the idiot engineer that "lost' it never went back and asked for it, it would become the finders property. And he would have at the very least a reward coming from Apple.
 

CowboyWay

If Coach would have put me in, we'd a won State
Messages
4,444
Reaction score
554
Had the guy who found it contacted apple with it, I'm sure there would have been a hefty reward. But he chose to sell it to the highest bidder instead.
 

TheCount

Pixel Pusher
Messages
25,523
Reaction score
8,848
Hoofbite;3402859 said:
You happen to know why the word "stolen" is in quotes in the thread title?

It's in quotes because Gizmodo had originally said that the guy found the phone and had tried to return it. Basically they were playing the law, which said that if someone makes a "reasonable attempt" to return something, and it goes unclaimed, they can keep it.

Turns out the bar says the guy never came back to the bar to try and return it or ask if the owner had been back, when in fact the owner had returned to the bar several times asking if it turned up.

Instead he said he "called apple", meaning an apple store, to try and return the phone, like they are equipped to handle something like that.

I usually don't side with corporations on stuff like this, but I hope Apple sues the pants off both Gizmodo and the kid that stole the phone.

The whole thing is shady and they did it all in the name of a scoop and then tried to hide behind a journalism shield to basically say because they run a blog, it's okay for them to pay for stolen property, document the **** out of it and use it to drive site hits, and essentially collect the extra advertising revenue.

The law exists to protect real journalists, who might actually have sources that require protecting or be involved in stories that could actually result in positive change and they are trying to twist the entire thing on its head.

Gizmodo also made the moronic mistake of completely putting the engineer on blast by plastering his mug and the supposed "story" of how he "lost" the prototype all over the internet like a bunch of snitches, in the futher attempt to distance themselves from the shady situation and say it was his fault.
 

rkell87

Well-Known Member
Messages
8,443
Reaction score
880
Hoofbite;3403212 said:
I don't think gizmodo has that one do they?

Says it's in Vietnam.
yeah, i just ment they have info from another 'lost' phone
 
Top