Whereabouts of lost iPhone prototype still unknown

With Apple's iPhone 5 expected to be launched in weeks, the mystery over a prototype of the gadget lost inside a San Francisco bar last July is not quite closed yet, as police have reportedly asked to see the bar's surveillance camera footage. According to a report on tech site CNET, the owners of Cava 22 - the bar where the iPhone was supposedly lost - San Francisco police asked permission to review the surveillance footage last weekend. Jose Valle, whose family owns Cava 22, said officers from the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) visited the bar about a week ago and left a message that they wanted to see his surveillance video from July 21 and 22 as part of their lost iPhone case, but have yet to follow up. It was the latest twist in the case of Apple's problems with keeping secrets - amid speculations Apple could unveil the much-anticipated iPhone 5 soon. This was the second unreleased iPhone that Apple has lost in the past 18 months. Last year, an Apple engineer lost a prototype iPhone 4 in a German beer garden in Redwood City, California. A spokesman for the SFPD, Lt. Troy Dangerfield, said he was not aware that investigators had gone to the bar or were looking for the videos. But he noted Apple had not filed a police report, so he was sure that there was no criminal investigation connected to the missing device. He said the request was likely part of the internal review launched this month by department officials into how police assisted Apple in a search of a home on July 24. "In order for there to be a crime, you need a victim," he said, but said he had no idea where that review stood or when it might be concluded. Problems with footage But Valle said it could be difficult for investigators to glean much from his recordings. He said the six surveillance cameras he uses in his tequila bar snap still photographs only every three minutes or so and then automatically store the images on a hard drive. Another problem is that some areas of the bar are not as well-lit. and picking up details could be difficult. Without Apple cooperation, police would have no idea what the Apple employee who lost the phone looked like. Even if they did spot something regarding a phone on the video, they couldn't be sure it was the handset in question. Apple seeking police help Last August 31, a two-member Apple security team had gone to SFPD's Ingleside station and asked for help locating a phone they said was lost by an unidentified Apple employee at Cava 22 about July 22. Apple's security team and police officers went to a Bernal Heights home where Apple said it had electronically tracked the handset. SFPD acknowledged assisting Apple but said a search of the home, car and computer belonging to Sergio Calderon, 22, was conducted exclusively by Apple employees. Calderon denied possession of the gadget. — TJD, GMA News