If you thought that the only phones that get left behind in bars just before their announcement are the fruity variety, think again. Way back in September, a bartender at the 500 Club in San Francisco named Jamin Barton found a phone lying unattended during closing time. While Barton himself is not too familiar with the latest gadgets, he did feel that this phone was a bit different from several others that get left behind every week, on account of a Not For Sale sticker and the Google logo on the back.

The bartender showed the phone to a more gadget-savvy customer, Dave, who immediately identified it as the upcoming LG Nexus 4. Clearly someone who spends a lot of time browsing through blogs like ours, Dave offered to contact Google about the device, and upon doing so was told that he could be booked as an accessory to a crime. Rattled at this, Dave returned the phone back to Barton.

Barton eventually tried to arrange a meeting with a Google employee to return the phone, but Brian Katz, an Intelligence Manager (whatever that means) at Google, wanted the phone right away. After some hide-and-seek and a scuffle, involving the local police, Katz ended up getting the Nexus back later that night. Barton was offered a free phone worth $300 to keep the matter quiet, and not share any photos or comments about the device, till after the official announcement on October 29th. Not that it helped, because pictures and other details about the Nexus 4 eventually leaked out from other sources.

Wired who originally published this incident, paid Barton for some photos he had taken of the device and his story. You can read the detailed account on Wired.

What this got me thinking about, is why would someone in possession of an unreleased flagship device, be so careless as to leave it in a bar? And having done so, how come the person didn’t realize it soon enough? Whoever that was, is probably looking for a different job right now. Crazy story, isn’t it? But apparently true. It will be interesting to see if Google makes any mention of this matter on Monday, when they announce the LG Nexus 4.