Gizmodo, EFF, and Jon Stewart are not the sources you should rely on for the truth of this story. The finder had the name of the owner, but didn't attempt to contact him. He in fact never called Apple. A friend offered to call Applecare, but didn't (Source: Wired)

Someone behaved like douchebags here, but it wasn't Apple. It was the ass who found the phone and kept it - later selling it, and Gizmodo for purchasing an item of questionable provenance as well as publicizing the name of the engineer.

Worth reading.
http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/gi...ototype_iphone

Also worth noting that Gizmodo's account of what happened contradicts the story of the finder.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/iphone-finder/

There's a lot of CYA going on right now.