Surveillance video of lost Apple iPhone 5 in Cava 22 bar was automatically erased

On the eve of Apple's introduction of the next-gen Apple iPhone(s) comes word about an incident that harkens back to the Summer. On July 22nd, when an Apple employee allegedly misplaced a prototype for the fifth-gen iPhone, there were 6 surveillance cameras at the Cava 22 bar where the incident was supposed to have taken place. Recently, the San Francisco Police Department requested the tape as part of an investigation about the conduct of the officers assigned to the case, and the SFPD were told that the tapes were automatically erased once the hard drive storing the images reached full capacity.

The 6 cameras do not record continuous video, instead they take pictures every 3 minutes apart and the video is saved for a small amount of time. Besides, the bar itself is poorly lit leaving images that are hard to decipher, especially when looking for something that no one has ever seen before. Jose Valle, whose family owns Cava 22, says he told the SFPD that the video is no longer available. A good question to ask would be, why did the SFPD wait so long to ask to see the tapes? Valle originally told Cnet that he had the tapes in question and would let them be viewed for a fee, which Cnet declined.

While Apple never filed a police report, the SFPD is said to be conducting an internal investigation of how two Apple investigators searched the home of Sergio Calderon, the person originally accused of ending up with the prototype. The Apple investigators found nothing unusual after searching Calderon's home and no one has claimed to have possession of the prototype.

Tomorrow, Apple is expected to introduce the next-gen Apple iPhone 5 and a Apple iPhone 4S. As we reported, a WSJ story today claims that Sprint has locked itself into a deal with Apple and will get an exclusive on the iPhone 5 while AT&T and Verizon get to offer customers a slightly improved Apple iPhone 4S.

source: Cnet