The carpet and socks thing is real. I killed a stick of DDR4 that way years ago and didn't figure it out until I tried it in a different board and got nothing. What fixed it for me was getting a cheap ESD mat and clipping the wrist strap to it, then touching the bare metal of the case before I grab anything. Sounds like overkill but I have not lost a part since, and it takes two seconds.

That lock story got me thinking about all the times Ive found stuff like that before a job starts. Last spring I found a brand new extension cord still in the package behind a dumpster at a site in Lynnwood. Nobody ever claimed it, so I just left it there. The police showing up that quick is wild though, usually its the opposite. Ive had property managers shrug off stuff like that and say theyll deal with it later, then nothing ever happens. Half the time the scrappers are back the next week stripping whatever they missed.