The Story of the Lost iPhone Prototype (2011 Edition) continues today, as a report from the SF Weekly claims that Apple may have impersonated San Francisco police in order to search for its lost device. If you recall, the story originally went that Apple and the San Francisco Police Department tracked the prototype to a San Francisco man's home and then conducted a search of the home that didn't produce any results. Today SF Weekly revealed that it interviewed Sergio Calderón, the man who the paper believes had his home searched. Calderón says that six people showed up at his house claiming to be from the SFPD and that, after nothing was found, one of them identified himself as Tony and gave his phone number to Calderón, telling him to call the number if he had any other information about the missing device.

SF Weekly called the number given to Calderón and spoke with a man named Anthony Colon. Colon confirmed that he is an Apple employee but refused to speak further. Colon's LinkedIn profile, which has been deleted (you can find an image of it here, courtesy of MacRumors), identifies Colon as a former San Jose Police sergeant and current senior investigator at Apple. The SFPD has said that it hasn't yet spoken with Calderón, but that if he does get in touch with them, they'll investigate the case.

Obviously if did Apple impersonate San Francisco police officer, it's is a pretty big deal could land the Cupertino firm in quite a bit of legal trouble if the story is true. Another possible explanation is that some actual officers may have assisted Apple in the search but didn't divulge their work like they should have. Either way, it certainly sounds like Apple may have some explaining to do. We'll keep you up to date as more info comes in.

UPDATE: Now the SFPD is claiming that "three or four" officers escorted two Apple officials to Calderón's home. However, the police department's spokesman said that the officers didn't enter the house, instead allowing the pair of Apple employees to search for the iPhone themselves.

Via MacRumors, SFWeekly (1), (2)