Two men sentenced in iPhone prototype theft

Two men linked to the theft of a prototype Apple iPhone 4 in 2010 were sentenced to one year of probation after pleading no-contest to a charge of theft of lost property. San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Brian Hogan and Sage Wallower were also sentenced to 40 hours of public service, and were ordered to pay $250 each in restitution to Apple. "We asked for some jail time. The judge considered that Wallower had served in the armed forces and Hogan was enrolled in San Jose State, and neither had any criminal record, and decided that jail time wasn't required. Someone from my office called Apple's general counsel. This is a fairly routine theft case. This was a couple of youthful people who should have known better," Wagstaffe said in an interview posted on tech site CNET. Hogan allegedly found the prototype in a bar, and Wallower allegedly helped him shop the device around to technology sites. Both were charged with misdemeanor theft in early August. The two supposedly got the prototype after Apple computer engineer Robert Gray Powell left the device in a German beer garden in Redwood City, California. Court records showed that when the phone was featured on tech site Gizmodo, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs to personally contact the site's editor, Brian Lam, to request that the iPhone 4 be returned. Lam refused to do so, unless the company provided "confirmation that it is real, from Apple, officially," according to an e-mail message that was also made public. CNET said Wallower, a former Navy cryptologic technician who was scheduled to graduate from University of California at Berkeley in 2010, had said last year that he "didn't see it (iPhone) or touch it in any manner. But I know who found it." A separate article on The Next Web said Hogan and Wallower have been allowed to keep the $4,750 in profit from the sale of the device. On the other hand, The Next Web noted Apple itself may also be facing legal action from Sergio Calderon, a California resident who claimed Apple employees impersonated plainclothes police officers and searched his house for an unreleased iPhone which the company lost earlier this year. — TJD, GMA News