Brian Hogan and Robert Sage Wallower, the two men that were charged with stealing a prototype of Apple"s iPhone 4 in March 2010, have now been sentenced after the two men both pleaded no contest this week to one misdemeanor count of theft of lost property. The San Francisco Examiner web site reports that Hogan and Wallower will each have to pay a $250 fine to Apple. They also each got one year of probation and 40 hours of community service. Prosecutors apparently wanted the two men to also spend five days in jail but the judge decided against that idea.
This brings the celebrated case of Apple"s lost iPhone 4 prototype to an end. It began when Hogan claimed he found the prototype iPhone 4 in a bar in Redwood City, California back in March 2010, several months before the final version of Apple"s popular smartphone was released. The prototype was accidentally left at the bar by a Apple employee, Gray Powell. Hogan later sold the iPhone 4 prototype to gadget web site Gizmodo for $5,000.
Gizmodo proceeded to write an extensive preview article on the iPhone 4 based on examining the prototype. Apple asked the web site to return the phone but Gizmodo editors tried to impose some conditions before they would agree to return the phone to Apple. In the end, the prosecutors involved in the case decided not to press charges against Gizmodo, saying there was not enough evidence to indict anyone from the blog site.