Stolen iPhone probe: police officials raid Gizmodo writer’s house

Blog entry also mentioned that police came with warrant, and seized several digital cameras, flash drives, external hard drives, tow servers, four desktop computers and even credit card and credit cards bills from bloggers house.

Reportedly, Chen was not present at home when the officers came with the warrant to search his house on Friday night.

After Gizmodo has purchased the allegedly lost iPhone for $5,000, Jason Chen has written extensively about the Apple’s new iPhone offering in making. However, after finding out that the device is a stolen property and not lost as Gizmodo was told, they returned it to Apple, as per Gizmodo’s story.

Till then Apple has hired REACT team to look into the matter, and since then investigation is ongoing on.

Raid warrant invalid
The chief operating officer at Gizmodo’s parent company Gawker Media, Gaby Darbyshire, reacted to the incident by sending a letter to San Mateo County authorities, in which he called the search illegal.

However, after finding out that the device is a stolen property and not lost as Gizmodo was told, they returned it to Apple, as per Gizmodo’s story.

Darbyshire said in the letter that raid was illegal because Chen is a journalist and is protected under California Penal Code 1524 that states that search warrants may not be issued against reporter's "notes, outtakes, photographs, tapes or other data of whatever sort" that was not part of the report they were working on.

In the letter he has demanded that all the things be returned to its rightful owner.

"The California Court of Appeals has made it abundantly clear that these protections apply to online journalists," wrote Darbyshire.

Apple iPhone prototype lost and found drama, a PR stunt?
Ever since the news broke down that Apple has hired REACT team to investigate the lost iPhone case, media is busy speculating if all this is just another elaborate PR stunt by Apple.

However, experts believe that it’s highly unlikely that Apple did all this just to gain publicity. Apple is known for using eye catching methods to attract attention towards its product but it is also known fact that they protect their unreleased property before its launch.

As per sales manager for Chesapeake Systems, Nick Gold, "I don't think this was a PR stunt, as Apple seems very capable of generating all the press they want without resorting to such tactics."