Apple security personnel accused of posing as police officers to search man's home for missing iPhone prototype

Cava22, the bar where the iPhone was reportedly lost

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Apple had lost a prototype iPhone model in a San Francisco bar (yes, again) late this past July. According to the initial report, Apple and San Francisco police were able to track the device to a home in the area; the parties conducted a search but came up with nothing. However, yesterday the San Francisco Police Department revealed that it had no records of a search occurring. 

SF Weekly has posted an interview with the man who was home at the time of the search. The man claims that Apple security personnel may have posed as police officers from the San Francisco Police Department, which of course is against the law. With that being said, it is possible that real police officers did take part in the search, but did not record any information on it. 

Calderón 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. 

At no point, he said, did any of the visitors say they were working on behalf of Apple or say they were looking for an iPhone 5 prototype. 

Calderón claims that the people who took part in the search looked through his home and car. They also reportedly checked his computer to see if any lost device was ever synced to it. 

Failing to find the phone anywhere, he said one of the "officers" offered him $300 if he would return it.

"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, and they'll give you $300,'" he recalled.

​As the visitors left, one of them -- a man named "Tony" -- gave Calderón his phone number and asked him to call if he had further information about the lost phone. Calderón shared the man's phone number with SF Weekly.