The story that circulated yesterday that a little over a year after the is now looking less credible. PCMag has been in contact with the San Francisco Police Department, whose spokespeople now say Apple has been giving them the "round around" in conversations earlier today.

Yesterday, after the story broke that an Apple employee may have lost an prototype in a San Francisco Mexican restaurant, a strange replay of , it circulated widely online, and was met with some skepticism. Since the initial report on CNET had no photos or details on the device (in stark contrast to ), many took the news like a fine margarita—with several grains of salt.

On top of the nonexistent details on the phone, there were aspects to the report that stretched credulity. The story said Apple security people had accompanied uniformed police to a residence where Apple had tracked the phone. The person apparently living there denied any knowledge of the device, even though he admitted to being in the restaurant on the night in question, in late July. The Apple reps are said to have offered him money if he produced the phone, no questions asked, but he stuck to his story.

Now the whole thing looks like a story. PCMag spoke with two spokesmen for the San Francisco Police Department, Michael Andraychak and Troy Dangerfield, and neither had any knowledge of the incident, even after they had made several internal queries. Dangerfield also said the SFPD had been on the phone with Apple Global Security for 30 minutes this morning trying to figure out if there was an incident and that Apple was "not giving us anything" and that they were "getting the round around [sic]." Dangerfield said that all the police would need is a name of a victim (presumably the employee who lost it) to perform an adequate search in police records for the incident.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told PCMag the company didn't have anything to say about the original report or the company's dealings with SFPD.

In the meantime, two of the men involved in the original lost iPhone prototype case from last year officially pleaded not guilty at an arraignment this morning. Last month Brian Hogan and Robert Wallower with misdemeanor theft and possession of stolen property.