Possible ID found for Apple employee who lost iPhone

Hot on the heels of the news that a next generation iPhone had been lost by Apple came the apparent identity of the employee it was entrusted to, a man having possibly the worst day of his working life.

The 27 year old Apple employee has been tentatively identified as Gray Powell, a software engineer who was seen at the Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German beer hall in Redwood Valley. According to the site that broke the news Powell was drinking in the beer hall and field testing the new iPhone on Tuesday March 18.

When another patron of the bar found the phone he hung around to see if someone would claim it and then took it home. The next day the phone had been deactivated and he noticed that something wasn't right about the handset.

He cracked the cover and found inside the prototype iPhone, which has since been doing the rounds. Photos first appeared on Engadget but the actual device ended up with Gizmodo. It is not known if Gizmodo paid any money for the device but this seems highly likely.

The site contacts Powell about the phone, who appeared to confirm its authenticity.

"He sounded tired and broken," the site reports.

"But at least, he's alive. And apparently, still working at Apple."