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Originally Posted by Tamara
What war? Jason Chen knowingly paid for what is considered stolen property and the police are investigating. Big deal.
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Actually, it is not clear it is "stolen property." One may argue that calling Apple's customer service number and telling them about the phone, and asking around the bar if someone lost a phone, are good faith attempts to return the LOST phone.
Apple could have called the phone, or tracked its location easily. They were certainly ale to wipe it clean the day after it was lost.
Apple also sent a lame email demand letter to Gizmodo two days later, but again, it was not nearly as aggressive in pursuing this as it normally is.
Whether they didn't do these things because they banked on all the publicity it will generate (the G4 was already leaked from China earlier, anyway), or for some other reason, I don't know.
But it is clear that Apple didn't do all it could, or normally would, to recover the phone.
This is why it is surprising to see such sudden show of force by the San Mateo police. I do expect Apple to have clout with local officials, but breaking down a journalist's door certainly seems excessive.