It all started back in March of 2010 when Robert Gray Powell, an Apple engineer, was celebrating his 27th birthday at Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German beer garden in Redwood City, California. The beer garden was located approximately 30 minutes away from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. Powell apparently had an iPhone 4 prototype in his possession for testing and accidentally left it at the beer garden.
Brian Hogan, (pictured) found the iPhone 4 prototype at the beer garden and took it home. He then contacted his friend, Sage Wallower who helped Hogan try to sell the phone to different tech blog sites. Both were formally charged with misdemeanor theft in August of 2011.
Today both Hogan and Wallower plead no contest to theft of lost property and each were sentenced to one year of probation, 40 hours of community service and $250 in restitution to Apple. The district attorney had asked for jail time for the pair. The presiding judge opted for a lesser punishment in part because Wallower had served in the United States Navy and Hogan was taking classes at San Jose State. Both defendants did not have any prior criminal records.
