Police ID Person Who Found New iPhone

April 28, 2010— -- The case of the leaked Apple iPhone continues to unfold.

Police have identified the person who found the prototype of the new iPhone after it was left behind at a bar by an Apple engineer, according to local reports. But authorities haven't said if the same person sold the phone to tech blog Gizmodo for $5,000.

Last week, the Internet went wild when Gizmodo published an exclusive story about a prototype of the next generation of Apple's iPhone -- scheduled for release this summer.

But earlier this week, the site revealed that Friday police entered the home of Jason Chen, a Gizmodo editor who wrote about the next-generation iPhone, to seize computers and other gadgets.

Investigators have identified and interviewed the person who picked up the prototype phone after Apple engineer Gray Powell left it at a Redwood City, Calif., bar March 18, the San Jose Business Journal said Tuesday.

"We're still not saying it's a crime," San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told the Journal. "The investigation has contacted as many segments of the people involved in this situation, including the person who took the phone from the German restaurant. The police know who he is and they have talked to him."

Wagstaffe said Powell and outside counsel for Apple contacted the district attorney's office Wednesday or Thursday of last week to report a theft and ask for an investigation, the Journal said. Then they were referred to the Rapid Enforcement and Allied Computer Team, or REACT, the high-tech crime task force that ultimately confiscated computers from Gizmodo's Chen.

In response to the police seizure, Gawker Media LLC, Gizmodo's parent company, wrote a letter invoking the California shield law for journalists and said the search warrant to enter Chen's home was invalid.

Wagstaffe said the investigation is on hold until it's determined whether those protections apply in this case.