Brian Hogan is the 21-year-old college student who found a prototype iPhone 4 in a Silicon Valley bar back in 2010. The young man had gone for drinks with his friends at Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City and was surprised to find a prototype iPhone that had been forgotten by Apple engineer Gray Powell, who had probably had a little too much to drink.
Hogan then agreed to sell the device to Gizmodo for the total amount of $8,000, an amount he says he never received.
Gizmodo contacted me and told me they would give me $5000 for the story and another $3000 when Apple itself confirmed the existence of this device. Of course, they knew that after the story was published there was no way I would reveal my details and be able to get the additional $3000, but I was naive and believed them. Of course, in the end, the lawyer I hired cost me much more than the $5000 I had initially received…
Hogan's friend, Robert Sage Wallower, who helped sell the iPhone to Gizmodo, was also charged, and both were sentenced to 40 hours of community service and a small fine of $125, all of which denied the charges of misappropriation of property. No charges were filed against Gizmodo.
In the Reddit thread, which is still open, Brian Hogan answered and answers other questions. Specifically, we have:
Q: They're really bums at Gizmodo. Did you ever consider selling the device to competing companies like HTC or Samsung if they were interested?
Hogan: Believe me, yes, and I thought about it, and they were interested, and to a large extent, it just all happened very quickly, almost like lightning.
Q: I believe they threatened you with a lawsuit even though you found the device by accident.
Hogan: The threat or risk of a lawsuit still exists but I can't think of anything that they could directly accuse me of.
Q: How long did it take you to get home after the incident?
Hogan: A total of 3 weeks after the police discovered me. My roommate at the time, in order to collect the reward, was in excellent cooperation with the police, giving them all the information about me, recording conversations and even taking pictures of my things. I had gone to find shelter at my parents' house but she told me where that was too.
Hogan also mentioned that initially the original iPhone 4 was fully functional but after a short period of time it wouldn't even turn on since Apple must have done some kind of remote format when it realized the device was lost.
You can read more about what he said here.
