There were some threads pointed out to me on the armor forum pertaining to lost PE parts that had me howling.
My contention is that the liklihood of losing a part is exponentially proportional to its importance and the difficulty in "Faking" one. You will never lose small parts that can easily be made, but give me one that would be hard to fake and it will be lost forever.
In your case I think it's possible that Mike's California Gremlins may have migrated southeast!
Good luck finding it, like I always tell myself while hunting for something, "It HAS to be here SOMWHERE!"