Police raid home of blogger over iPhone 'scoop'

Mike Harvey, San Francisco
The Times
Apr. 29, 2010

Read Chen's account of the raid on GizmodoPolice have raided the home of a technology blog editor after he revealed details of Apple's next iPhone.

Detectives are investigating whether Jason Chen, an editor at the leading tech blog Gizmodo, broke a law covering the appropriation of stolen property for personal benefit.

Gizmodo paid $5,000 for a top-secret iPhone 4G prototype after a hapless Apple software engineer left it on a bar stool.

The handset was found by an unknown person who hawked it round various blogs.

Mr Chen posted extensive details about the phone, embarrassing Apple, which prides itself on its security around its products before launch.

Police officers working for a Silicon Valley computer-crime task force are said to have broken into Mr Chen's house while he was out to dinner with his wife and seized computers, digital cameras, a mobile phone and other items.

Mr Chen returned to his home, whereupon his car was searched.

Gizmodo's revelations about the iPhone 4G attracted millions of visitors to the site.

The iPhone 4G, which is due to be launched by Apple this summer, had been found in a bar in Redwood City, and sold by the unknown person to the blog, owned by Gawker Media.

Apple acknowledged that the device belonged to the company and its lawyers asked for it to be returned.

Gizmodo complied. Apple goes to extraordinary lengths to protect the secrecy of its products, and the company has taken aggressive legal action in the past. Apple declined to comment on the police raid.

Police officers went armed with a search warrant to Mr Chen's house in Fremont, California, on Friday, according to a statement and documents posted by Gizmodo.

The warrant, issued by a Superior Court judge in San Mateo County, asserted that the computers and other devices may have been used to commit a felony.

Members of the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team took several computers, hard drives, digital cameras, mobile phones and other gadgets, plus Mr Chen's American Express bill and copies of his cheques.

Gawker Media protested that California's "shield law", which protects journalists from having to turn over anonymous sources or unpublished material to law enforcement during a search, should apply to their editor's property.

Gaby Darbyshire, a lawyer for Gawker, said that "a search warrant may not be validly issued to confiscate the property of a journalist," according to documents posted on Gizmodo.

Gray Powell, 27, left the handset at the Gourmet Haus Staudt bar. The prototype revealed that the new handset may have squarer edges and a flat back, which appeared to be made of a ceramic glass material that would enable better reception.

The iPhone 4G is also expected to have a better display screen, longer battery life and a camera in the front that could be used for video chat.