Get out! I find them all the time. Longest one was lost almost 2 years to the day, and was dumped in a cache by an old-timer who rarely logged caches online. Just a couple of weeks ago, I grabbed one that was moved 500 miles unlogged, although it was only "lost" a couple of months.
As far as what the original poster said:
You might be located in the area of a remourseful repenetant traveler thief who had come to his senses.
Now if only all those stolen geocoins would mysteriously re-appear.
I don't know why I typed that, it was just in my head for some reason.
Now that they have the discovered option for bugs just log any you see at group meetings and some may get back in circulation.