A Bernal Heights man claims that an Apple security team escorted by San Francisco police officers came to his home, threatened him and his family and searched his belongings for an alleged Apple iPhone prototype. Now he's hired a lawyer and is considering filing a lawsuit against the Cupertino, Calif. company.
Sergio Calderon, 22, ventured onto the tech radar last month when CNET posted an article about an alleged lost iPhone 5 prototype at a bar in July. It turns out that the report was unfounded, at least by a SF Weekly journalist following up on the case. Then Calderon called SF Weekly's Peter Jamison and told him his side of the story -- about Apple security claiming to be San Francisco police and searching his home.
The SFPD confirmed they escorted the Apple security team to Calderon's home, but that two Apple security officers searched his home, car and computer, CNET reported.
David Monroe, an attorney in San Francisco, said he's doing preliminary investigations on the case for his client, Calderon. He said that if SFPD or Apple isn't cooperative then "we'll just file a lawsuit and get the information that way."
Monroe does raise some interesting questions, including how did Apple security officers know his client's name before he answered the door or why SFPD allowed a company's private security to perform a search instead of police. It makes me wonder at what kind of special relationship Apple enjoys with law enforcement, although we suspect it has to do with federal laws. Earlier this year, Apple had U.S. Secret Service agents roust a Brooklyn artist for computer fraud for filming people on Apple store cameras.
So what have we learned, kids? Don't mess with Apple!
