MICROSOFT lost a prototype version of a new phone - and paid to get it back.
An employee of the Redmond firm was using the new Lumia 920 which was running a new version of Windows Phone 8. The device was then picked up by someone and sold online.
Jeremiah Wong purchased the phone from eBay before realising it was different to what he had expected - it had 'MSFT' etched on the back and was running an unusual version of Windows. He initially thought it was a developer kit.
However, after posting photographs of the device on his Flickr account, Mr Wong was contacted by Microsoft's legal team who requested the phone back, after they remotely locked it.
They offered to reimburse Mr Wong for the money he had spent purchasing the device in the first place, as well as sending him a replacement mobile.
It is understood the phone was running Windows Phone Blue, the next version of the firm's mobile operating system.
Apple famously lost a prototype of an iPhone in a California bar.
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