The story about the lost iPhone 5 prototype in a San Francisco bar is now looking less probable.

On Wednesday, CNET reported that an Apple employee lost an iPhone 5 prototype in a mistake eerily reminiscent of last year's iPhone 4 fiasco. The report said Apple later traced the phone to a San Francisco home where the owner denied having any knowledge of the device.

In last year's incident, which was one of the most talked about tech stories of 2010, an Apple employee lost an iPhone 4 prototype in a restaurant where the man who found it sold it to a tech site. The lost iPhone was an embarrassment to Apple, prompted legal action against tech blog Gizmodo, which bought the iPhone for $5,000, and led to a case being filed against the man who sold the device.

Now a year after that debacle, Apple is potentially facing the same media black eye. Except reports are now surfacing questioning the whole story. Since the initial report on CNET there has been no corroborating evidence. There are no photos or details, unlike last year's incident.

Considering the iPhone 5 is one of the most anticipated devices this year, a lost iPhone 5 prototype would have prompted the same response from tech sites as last year. Another nail on this story's coffin is that the San Francisco Police Department denies any knowledge of the incident.

"I talked to CNET," SFPD spokesman Officer Albie Esparza told SF Weekly. "I don't know who his source is, but we don't have any record of any such an investigation going on at this point."

Esperza says there are no records of police officers accompanying Apple representatives to the Bernal Heights home. Nor are there records of police dispatchers recording any incident involving the address where the search for the phone supposedly took place. Another SFPD spokesman, Troy Dangerfield, told PCMag the police had been in contact with Apple Global Security and Apple was "not giving us anything" and that they were "getting the round around [sic]."

Apple hasn't released any statement about the matter. Until there is actual confirmation about the incident, the story will just have to remain a fantastic tale.