4G iPhone Misplacer Invited To Germany For Beer

eldavojohn writes "You may recall the hapless engineer who left a fairly sensitive iPhone at a bar recently. Well, in a PR stunt, Lufthansa has invited him to visit Germany on their dime after citing his latest Facebook status, 'I underestimated how good German beer is' as well as his obvious passion for German beer and culture. It's not clear if Gray Powell has decided to 'pick up where he last left off' (as the letter puts it). I know what my decision would be."

What about the money?

[Neoprofin]

Should a company that's asking for millions of Euros in government bailouts be paying for publicity stunts? I mean I know a single flight from Seattle to Frankfurt isn't going to cost the airline itself much of anything, but what kind of message does it send to the tens of thousands of people who have been stranded for the last week or all of the Germans who are going to pay the potential bailout money if Lufthansa starts handing out free flights to guys just because they like German beer.

P.S. Saying "German beer" is like saying "American beer". I'd honestly be curious what he was drinking, most of the interesting stuff is the local city brews and I can tell you some of them are every bit the flavorless piss water of Coors.

Can open, worms everywhere

[SuperKendall]

I was already aghast at Gizmodo for running a story with the poor engineer's name

Me too. Uncalled for.

I'm more than slightly disappointed that Slashdot, a community that should be sympathetic to the guy

They (we?) are... I mean, his name is known, so why not promote one positive thing that has happened for/to him in the last week? It's a way of saying, we feel terrible for you, but at least you can get a free trip to Germany and a nice beer to drown your sorrows.

I don't see this as having a laugh at his expense or mean spirited at all.

Re:"Hapless" my ass

[Coren22]

Actually, according to a few sources, the original person who found the item attempted to contact Apple, and he was ignored. No stolen property if you attempt to return and the owner doesn't want it.