Who doesn’t want to become popular? None, right? Same as what happened last April 19, 2010 when a 21-year old man named Brian J. Hogan, a resident of Redwood City, California found an iPhone in a bar without even knowing that it’s not just a mere phone – it’s a phone from the future! It was owned by Gray Powell who is an Apple Software Engineer working on the iPhone Baseband Software.
Brian was very entertained using the phone that he didn’t even listen to his friend who suggested calling Apple Care and report about the lost and found phone. When it’s system went down, he tried opening the back cover and found a prototype of the be-launched model of Apple which is iPhone 4G. Many attempted to look and gather information about the phone but failed to do so until Gizmo offered $5000 as a payment for the device. After that incident, the phone’s prototype can be seen everywhere in Gizmodo.
His clueless identity was then revealed with the help of social media and was traced by Wired.com. As a further action, he will be facing a crime investigation with which every bit of information can be taken against him. His lawyer, Jeffrey Bornstein said that “He made a mistake. He should have just immediately turned that phone in.” As an addition, Bornstein told the police how good his client is telling them that “Hogan volunteers to assist his aunt and sister in the fundraising for their work to provide medical care to orphans in Kenya. Brian is the kind of young man that any parent would be proud to have as their son.”
Is it really a crime to found a valuable thing and not attempting to return it? I guess it’s not. You found it and you haven’t known the owner of that. But then, it’s an intellectual crime to use other’s work which could be a reason for somebody or something’s destruction.
As stated in California’s law, “It’s generally considered theft if one finds lost property under circumstances that give him knowledge of or means of inquiry as to the true owner and yet appropriates the property for his own use without first making reasonable and just efforts to find the owner and to restore the property to him.”
Therefore, Hogan needs to undergo an investigation and should be given an appropriate punishment. Although that what he did can only be considered lying but it is more to be considered stealing someone’s idea or property regardless of his reasons of not returning the thing that he doesn’t own.
With what happened, let’s just hope that lesson is already learned. See related video clip below.
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Tags: Apple, brian j. hogan, iphone finder found, iphone stealer found, stolen iphone 4g
