SEATTLE – Corporate investigators from T-Mobile contacted Seattle police this week when they found one of their prototype products for sale on eBay.

The phone - called the "Shadow II" in a police report - shouldn't have even hit the market yet, but T-Mobile investigators said that on June 7 it was sold on eBay for $499. They said it was "worth millions of dollars to the company," and they needed it back immediately.

According to a police report, the T-Mobile investigators traced the seller to a Seattle address, but wanted police help retrieving their product, which they believed was stolen from their shipments.

Seattle police helped set up a meeting between the investigators and the seller, who was still in possession of the phone.

According to a police report, the seller runs a business that purchases old cell phones and resells them on eBay. He told police one of his employees purchased the T-Mobile phone from a buyer – and he didn’t know where it came from.

T-Mobile investigators told police they weren't interested in criminal prosecution.

KING 5 reporter Jim Forman contributed to this report.