The Tale of the Button

I have an awesome pair of olive cargo pants. Hip-hugging, button-fly, these pants are rockin' the house.

Anyway, one of the buttons on the fly came off a couple weeks ago, and I slipped the button into one of the pockets to reattach later.

A few days later, with needle in hand, I searched for the button and lo! No button to be found in any of the pockets! What the Deuce!?

Today I decided to wash the pants, and then steal one of the buttons from the cuffs (they're decorative, and the same type of button anyway) to fix the fly. I put the pants in the washing machine, with a few other pairs of jeans, etc., etc. 30 minutes later, I pull all the wet clothes out to put in the dryer, and Lo And Behold! There, in the bottom of the washing machine, lay the lost button.

When no other buttons are missing, and you're at a laundromat, how often does this happen?