A buddy of mine lost a nut down in his intake manifold once and ended up taping a magnet to the end of a bent coat hanger to reach it. Worked better than the fancy wand he had. If the bolt landed somewhere magnetic can't get, sometimes you just gotta pull the part and shake it out.

Guess the front of a box is just for people who don't actually read the weird stuff.

Read a thread on a chef forum where someone said this exact thing happened to them, like the sous pulled the meat early to save time and it tanked the whole service. Checking with your own thermometer is basic stuff but sounds like it saved you from another disaster.