Nothing wrong with being searched without a warrant if it's the REAL police! But I wouldn't let a rent-a-cop in my house for nothing without a warrant and the police.
I dunno if you live in America, or have ever visited it, but please allow me to just say something.
I'm not too sure about what you said. Protection from the police is one of the major reasons why the US fought with King George... so we wouldn't have to deal with the King's men raiding our houses and treating us like crap just because they felt like it or were somehow superior than the average citizen. That's we have a Constitution that guarantees us protection from the government and the police.
Now I'm not saying that Apple shouldn't go after their lost property. We all would like our lost property back, and as such we report our valuable property to police. But that doesn't mean that you or I, or even the wealthiest corporation, can get the police and other minions to raid an innocent man's house (and who knows if he's innocent... but I'm going to assume he is innocent until he is proven guilty).
If we don't have police (and corporations) operating under their rights... well then, we might as well throw the Constitution away, right?
As much as the guy was scared or in the heat of the moment, I certainly hope that in the future people know their rights and demand a warrant from cops. Luckily, I have never had to deal with cops before (knock on wood), but I'm hoping that when I do, I'll remember to exercise my rights that are guaranteed on a piece of paper located in DC.
*Sorry about getting a bit philosophical/off-topic.

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By the way, I'm having a hard time recalling this, but didn't the Gizmodo editor who published iPhone 4 images have his house raided and his computers taken without a warrant? Or did they have a warrant? I know it was some secret tech police that is apparently legal (I can't remember the name unfortunately).
But I do remember reading that the editor basically came back from an evening out and found some "agents" in his garage checking and clearing it out...
It's really outrageous to be honest. I recognize that these products deal in the millions of dollars (or even billions for Apple), but come on... don't go around disrupting people's lives just because you can afford the cops/agents to do so.
What has happened to rule of law in this country... average guys like me will probably never recover a stolen or lost iPhone even after filing numerous police reports... but corporations man, they get special agents to raid houses on the spot.
