Wired Threat Level
The bar customer who found a prototype iPhone and let Gizmodo inspect and review it for $5,000 on Thursday said through his lawyer that he regrets not trying harder to get the phone back to its original owner.
“Brian J. Hogan, a 21-year-old resident of Redwood City, California, says although he was paid by tech site Gizmodo, he believed the payment was for allowing the site exclusive access to review the phone. Gizmodo emphasized to him ‘that there was nothing wrong in sharing the phone with the tech press,’ according to his attorney Jeffrey Bornstein.”
Police raided Gizmodo Editor Jason Chen’s home on Friday and seized evidence but have not yet decided if a crime was committed. Wired has reported that representatives from Apple located Hogan shortly after Gizmodo published their review of the phone and asked permission to search his residence but a roommate turned them away.
