When Amado Espinoza started his shift at Cava 22 on Wednesday night, he wasn’t expecting to be in the spotlight.
Yet there he was at the bar, doing a live standup for CBS Channel 5. An Apple employee had reportedly lost an iPhone 5 prototype at the popular bar — a situation reminiscent of last year’s incident in which an Apple engineer lost a prototype of the iPhone 4.
“People leave their phones here all the time,” said Espinoza, who has been working at Mission bars since he turned 21 in the early 1970s. “When you drink, you lose some of your senses.”
Credit cards are forgotten every day, and lost phones turn up mostly on the weekend, he said.
Most people who leave their phone at the bar get it back the same day, he said. He noted that surveillance cameras videotape throughout the bar, and footage can be reviewed for up to two months.
To Espinoza’s knowledge, neither Apple nor the San Francisco Police Department have contacted the bar to view surveillance footage.
SF Weekly is reporting that the SFPD has no record of police investigators going to a home in Bernal Heights to recover the prototype, as a CNET story alleges. An SFPD spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Although the iPhone 5 hasn’t turned up, Espinoza is no stranger to finding valuable items. He recalled a recent incident in which a man forgot a laptop that had sensitive information from a high-profile company. He declined to say which company or what kind of information was on the laptop, to protect the employee.
“He was very thankful,” he said.
In the 1970s, when Espinoza tended bar at Bruno’s on Mission Street, a bar patron forgot his wallet. It had $10,000 in cash in it.
Espinoza knew the patron, the owner of a Mission company, and returned it to him the following day.
The Wednesday media brouhaha, he said, was just another day at the bar.
I’ve been going to CAVA’s off and on since it re-opened. It definately has it’s misses and there are alot of shady types that patron there. Like Terri’s comment I was sitting at the bar and when Amado gave back my change I placed right next to my drink just then a guy reaches over and grabs the 20 but I grabbed his hand he commented he thought that was his change told him oldest trick in the bar book and to keep moving. I don’t go to CAVA’s anymore but not because of that incident. I think Amado’s great but I’ve lost the feel for the place. Though for all, you can’t beat the great $4 Margaritas during weeknights (4pm-7pm).
I was ripped off at this bar. They took 200$ out of my wallet, which was sitting on the bar. Doesn’t the bartender have the courtesy to put it behind the bar? They do know me there, I took my child for dinner. I was a patron. Worst part? The bartender laughed at me when I found the wallet intact on the bar, missing the $200. I dont go here anymore. I think it was an inside job and I have not seen that bartender. I was so upset about it and when I told them I wanted to see the video that night, surveillance, I was told it would happen by the local exceptionally awesome waitress there. I did not see the bartender workding there anymore, but was never contacted either way. Dont leave your belongings around , theyre are pro’s waiting for you to be off guard and rip you off. Sorry to say.