Did Apple Lose An iPhone 5 Prototype In A Bar… Again?

CNET is reporting that Apple has lost another iPhone in another bar. This time, it appears to be an iPhone 5 that’s gone missing. (We say appears because CNET neither confirms this, nor provides any photos of the phone.)

Of course, Apple lost an iPhone 4 in a bar last year, too. Am I the only one reminded of a line from The Hunt for Red October?

This time the phone was lost at a bar called Cava 22 in San Francisco’s Mission District. Apple apparently contacted police about the “priceless” phone that had gone missing, and even gave them a location for it, where a resident admitted being at Cava 22 the night it went missing. Nonetheless, the police (and Apple investigators) failed to turn it up. Apple employees even apparently offered the man money for the phone, no questions asked, without success. Apple did not file a police report.

CNET postulates that the phone may have been sold on Craigslist for $US200. But it doesn’t provide any evidence of that, nor does it name any sources, which is kind of odd. But based on what it does reveal, my guess is that it has a source within the San Francisco Police Department. There’s a lot of inside information that only a cop or prosecutor would know. Unless one of the Apple investigators is talking.

But the takeaway is that the phone is still out there, and has been since late July.

And seriously. Apple. Real talk: Tell your people to keep those priceless prototype phones the hell away from tequila joints.