Nokia Enlists Russian Police To Get Prototype Smartphone Back From Blogger

In April, Moscow-based blogger Eldar Murtazin posted a review of Nokia’s forthcoming N8 smartphone on his site mobile-review.com. Nokia asked for its return for weeks to no avail. Now they’re calling on the Russian police to get their phone back.

Murtazin wrote the post from a working prototype he acquired, and he was not particularly impressed with what he saw, though he did admit that he was was working from an early, pre-production unit. Nokia initially requested the phone’s return in an official blog post titled “one of our children is missing”, which is kind of a weird way to talk about your lost prototype phone. That post ended, “We are not the Secret Police, and we want to maintain our culture of openness.”

Openness, apparently, didn’t do much to get the unit back, and now Nokia’s going to the real police, in Russia. Says Bloomberg:

Several weeks back, we have formally requested the return of all unauthorized Nokia property from Mr. Murtazin and he declined to respond,” Doug Dawson, a spokesman for the Espoo, Finland-based company, said in an e-mail. “As a result, we have contacted the Russian authorities to assist us in the return of all unauthorized Nokia property.”

Hopefully Nokia gets their baby back safe and sound. [Bloomberg]

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