By the way, when John Bambury heard the story, he informed me that the same thing happened about 8 weeks ago to Andrew Murrell with the lid to the 25" Obsession.
Apparently Andrew called up the bloke whose place he had been observing at (about 1 hour from his home), and that bloke, who was driving between his home and the Central Coast pulled over to take the call. By rare twist of fate, upon being told about the missing lid, the bloke looked out the window of his car, and there was the lid, not 20 feet from his car. Talk about remarkable co-incidence.
Shades of Tolkein, and the ring that wanted to be found...
