A lot of this depends on when Apple realized that their employee had lost this prototype. If the kid who found it called before it was known by Apple that it was lost then you would expect Apple to blow it off.

After all, why would you call Apple if you found a lost iPhone? Would you call Motorola because you found a lost Droid? They would probably tell you to contact AT&T or Verizon or whatever cell network the phone was on to try to track down the owner.

But of course the kid ALREADY KNEW the owner as he had powered the phone on in the bar and seen the employees Facebook account. He didn't make any attempt to contact the employee at all.