Following up on yesterday's story about a prototype iPhone 5 allegedly lost at Cava 22 in the Mission, the Weekly dug around at SFPD HQ in search of a record of the investigation that reportedly took place at the Bernal Heights home where Apple security traced the device. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, the police have no record of any such investigation.

SFPD's spokesman Officer Albie Esparza tells the Weekly that he talked to the CNET reporter who broke the story, but no records of a search at a Bernal Heights home exist. Which they should, per standard procedure. Esparza even told this to CNET reporter Declan McCullagh, but apparently the gadget blogger is feeling pretty good about his anonymous source.

So, here we are: yesterday many readers and twitterfolk called the story a marketing stunt from Apple, but now it's starting to look more like a lame traffic boost for CNET. Or if you want to go full on conspiracy mode on this story: you could choose to believe Apple bought off a couple of uniforms to burn the search reports. (Highly unlikely, but fun to think about!)

[TheSnitch]