Apple and Police Ransack Home to Find iPhone 5

The saga continues in the hunt for a missing iPhone 5 prototype, with the tale taking a disturbing twist as police revealed Apple employees accompanied officers as they ransacked a private residence in San Francisco.

Apple reportedly lost a prototype iPhone 5, the next iteration of its yet-to-be released smartphone, in a San Francisco bar late July. Police issued a statement Friday that they had traced the phone back to a residence, and Apple employees accompanied them as they raided the home.

The two Apple (security) employees met with the resident and then went into the house to look for the lost item. The Apple employees did not find the lost item and left the house, the police statement said.

The homeowner, 22-year-old Sergio Calderon, told media outlets that he went to the same bar where the device was lost but had no knowledge of the missing phone.

Calderon initially told the SF Weekly that six people wearing badges and identifying themselves as San Francisco police officers searched his home one evening in July, rifled through his personal belongings and computer and threatened him over the missing phone.

Four SFPD Officers accompanied Apple employees to the Anderson street home, according to San Francisco Police department spokesman Troy Dangerfield.

One of the investigators gave Calderon a phone number and told him to call with any information about the lost phone. When an SF Weekly reporter called, a man named Anthony Colon, who said he was an Apple employee, answered, the report says.

Colon's LinkedIn profile, which he eventually removed, said he is a senior investigator for Apple and a former San Jose police sergeant.

The Apple employees did not want to make an official report of the lost item, the police report said.

It did not say why police accompanied Apple security or the circumstances under which Apple employees raided the home, and police would not respond to requests for further comment.

Apple also declined to comment.

The case eerily echoes the loss of the iPhone 4 prototype last year, where Apple used the services of Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team task force to search the home of the man who found and sold the device, and the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen.

REACT was not apparently involved this time. Nor did Apple enlist the Federal Bureau of Investigation .

Police had initially said it was not involved, but released a statement this Friday saying it was.