The $10,000 LG Chocolate mystery

LG took out a quarter page advert in the Financial Times yesterday to announce that it was 'globally searching' for 5 of its Chocolate phones, with the serial numbers: 802KPAE821224, 803KPBF578597, 803KPXV578330, 803KPVH578503 and 803KPJP923836.

In what could be the most expensive mobile handset global hunt ever, LG offers a $10,000 reward per handset returned to them. The advert refers readers to the LG Mobile web page for more information. You can click here for more details.

However, the company remains cryptic as to the reason of the recall and even imposes a deadline for returning the wanted handsets by the 30th September 2009, somewhat unusual for a product recall.

The mystery remains over LG's unusual advert, with observers torn between it being a rather unorthodox marketing ploy or a quest to recover experimental microprocessing chips accidentally inserted into the handsets in question.