Apple has lost a unit of the next generation iPhone in a bar in a repeat of the embarrassing incident that took place last year with the iPhone 4.

Technology news website CNET reported on Wednesday that an Apple employee lost the iPhone 5 in a San Francisco tequila bar in July prompting the tech giant to scramble to recover the device over the next few days.

Last year another Apple employee lost an iPhone 4 prototype in a German beer garden in Redwood City, California. The device was brought by gadget blog Gizmodo for $5000 in cash. The blog later published pictures and details of the iPhone 4 prototype. Prosecutors filed misdemeanor charges against the men who brokered the deal with the blog. Prosecutors declined to file charges against Gizmodo.

This year's lost phone seems to have been sold on the internet site Craigslist for $200. Apple representatives called the police after it went missing and the company was desperate to get it back, according to CNET sources.

Apple then traced the phone to a home in the Bernal Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. The man who was in the house denied knowing anything about the phone but he did agree that he was in the bar where the device went missing. The police searched the house but they found nothing. Apple offered the man money in exchange for the phone but the unnamed man continued to deny any knowledge of the phone.

Apple has become more stringent in its security after last year's fiasco. Next generation iPhones are sent inside locked and sealed boxes for testing by carriers. Apple developers have been given iPhones with the same exterior as the iPhone 4 but with upgraded processors.

Apple has declined to comment on the story.