Wired.com (which was offered the secret prototype of the next generation iPhone but refused to pay for it, they'll have you know) has identified the now-poor S.O.B. who found the abandoned device on a barstool in Redwood City, Calif.

The iPhone peddler has been identified as Brian Hogan, a 21-year-old sometimes-student who shopped the phone around to several tech publications before selling it to Gizmodo for $5,000 in cash.

Yet, Hogan's lawyer paints his client as a near modern-day Mother Teresa.

“Brian has been working part time at a Church run community center where he was teaching swimming to kids age 3 to 10," lawyer Jeff Bornstein said. "He also has taught English in China to college students and volunteered at a Chinese orphanage in 2009 while enrolled in a study abroad program through college. In that same year, Brian volunteered in Vietnam to plant a friendship garden.

"He also volunteers to assist his aunt and sister with fund-raising for their work to provide medical care to orphans in Kenya.”

And sells top secret iPhones to the highest bidder.

Apple has apparently clued into some holes in the original story detailing Hogan's seemingly earnest attempts to return the phone. (If he fiddled with the owner's apps, including Facebook — as reported and confirmed in his lawyer's statement — couldn't he have contacted Gray Powell directly?) In fact, Hogan had a friend call Apple Care for him — once.

He meanwhile had minions contacting tech journalists offering access to the device for a (not-so-subtly requested) fee, and failed to notify anyone at the bar about the lost phone.

Powell and Apple jointly reported the phone stolen last week, and it's being investigated as a theft by the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.

I don't have a ton of sympathy for Hogan, but I feel bad that the poor schmuck's likely got the Apple Gestapo trailing him as we speak. Since tracing the sale to him, Apple representatives have showed up at his door and tried to search his home. Luckily, they were denied entrance by a bewildered roommate.

Gizmodo editor Jason Chen wasn't so lucky. His house was ransacked — illegally, experts say — by California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team. (The question of whether bloggers are considered journalists, and privy to the same protections, is about to blow up — mark my words).

So much for the theory this was all a guerilla marketing ploy, I guess.