Just to offer a bit of counterpoint, I have zero problem with Gizmodo. Sure, they're talking out of both sides of their mouth to an extent. "We'll be happy to return the iPhone ..." (...now that we're done with it, but if you had asked us when we first got it, you might have gotten a tad more reticence than you're getting now).
But jeez, c'mon, they're journalists, in a world where "first unboxings" -- especially of something like the Next Big Thing From Apple -- is like the holy grail of journalism.
And I didn't read their reply to Apple as "flippant" -- just "couched". They even went so far as to throw a good word in for their unintended victim. Which is about all they can do, short of returning it to him. I think that's why they phrase it the way they do -- they want them to know that they want to return it to the person from whom it was taken.
And I don't see this as career-ruining -- it was a mistake, a big one, and the dude needed to be called on it. I'm betting Apple keeps him, or he finds another job. Jeez, he can program microcode, cocky enough to test it himself in the field. He can't be too bad. I'd hire him.
But it's all moot. The Princess of Kansas has declared that the issue be resolved by cockfight (titter), anyway, so wait for the carnage.