I mean…they were reviewing it in-house. They had already “taken” it. The question is whether they give it back after - and it’s a very common routine for manufacturers to just not care, in which case a charity auction would be normal.
It sounds like it was just a unique case where they slipped the directions, and forgot the company had asked them to return the prototype after. It was a dumb mistake, yes, but a lot of people are acting like it was super scummy and intentional which I don’t get.
It seems like the other circumstances around poor work environment and low review quality are a lot more important.