Bartender 'threatened with arrest by Google heavies' after tech employee accidentally left top-secret phone at his bar



Bartender vs Google: Jamin Barton found himself in the cross hairs of a very serious Google security officer

A San Francisco bartender found himself in Google's cross hairs after an absent-minded employee of the tech giant accidentally left a top-secret new smartphone in his bar in September.



Jamin Barton says a security officer for Google, who had previously been a special agent for the State Department, harassed him and repeatedly threatened him with arrest if he didn't turn over the Nexus 4 -- a new phone that the company has yet to release publicly.



It's a story that has played out before: An employee of a major tech company leaves behind a prototype of a new phone at a bar. The company then throws its legal weight into trying to keep the details of the device a secret.



In 2010, Brian Hogan found an iPhone 4 prototype that an Apple employee left at a San Fransisco bar and sold it to a tech site for $5,000. He and a friend were both charged with theft after Apple claimed the device was stolen.



Mr Barton didn't realize what he had until he showed it to a tech-savvy friend. It's common for people to leave their phones at his bar, the 500 Club, Wired magazine reports.



His friend realized the 'not for sale' sticker and Google logo meant the phone was actually the top-secret Nexus 4.



Google is set to release the new phone this week. Mr Barton had the device more than a month early.

Many of the details of the phone were already known to the public. However, tech companies have tried to closely guard the secrets of their consumer products -- fearing that if they leak out, other companies could quickly copy them.

The Nexus 4, produced by LG in cooperation with Google, reportedly boasts a 4.7-inch, 1280 x 768 display, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU and an eight-megapixel rear camera.

It also will likely be shipped with the newest Android operating system, version 4.2 'Key Lime Pie.'



Protective: The development of the Nexus 4 phone is one of Google's closest secrets

Mr Barton's friend contacted Google to verify that the phone was indeed a Nexus 4. He returned spooked.



'"Google lost a phone," he told me. "You just got a guy fired... The Google police are coming,"' Mr Barton recounted to Wired.



Google dispatched Brian Katz, global investigations and intelligence manager, to retrieve the phone.



Mr Katz, described as a military-type man, worked as a special agent for the State Department and then as a regional security officer for the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem.



Now he was going after Mr Barton, a bartender.

Mr Barton's friend told him Google security officers threw around terms like 'accessory to a crime' as threats if the phone was not returned.

When Mr Katz showed up at the 500 Club, he reportedly threatened everyone he spoke with by saying he hoped to 'keep them out of trouble' and 'keep the bar out of trouble.'

Eventually, Mr Barton did turn the phone over to Mr Katz. He said the Google security officer offered him a free phone (not the Nexus 4) if he didn't speak to the media about the details of what he saw.



Mr Barton declined and sold photos of the device to Wired.



