Wired Identifies Seller of Lost iPhone Prototype

Brian X. Chen and Kim Zetter:

Brian J. Hogan, a 21-year-old resident of Redwood City, California, says although he was paid by tech site Gizmodo, he believed the payment was for allowing the site exclusive access to review the phone. Gizmodo emphasized to him “that there was nothing wrong in sharing the phone with the tech press,” according to his attorney Jeffrey Bornstein.

So begins Hogan’s efforts to put it all on Gizmodo.

A friend of Hogan’s then offered to call AppleCare on Hogan’s behalf, according to Hogan’s lawyer. That apparently was the extent of Hogan’s efforts to return the phone.

Read that closely. First, Hogan never called anyone, including Apple, to attempt to return the phone. Second, his friend, according to this paragraph, “offered to call AppleCare”. Did this friend actually even call AppleCare? It’s not clear from Wired’s article that Hogan did anything at all to return the phone.

His attorney says he recently transferred schools and will resume his college education in the fall. He has been working part time at a church-run community center giving swimming lessons to children and volunteered at a Chinese orphanage last year while he was enrolled in a study-abroad program.

“He also volunteers to assist his aunt and sister with fundraising for their work to provide medical care to orphans in Kenya,” his attorney says. “Brian is the kind of young man that any parent would be proud to have as their son.”

You know it’s bad when your attorney is asking for leniency before you’ve even been charged.

★ Thursday, 29 April 2010