Fantastic anecdote, thank you for sharing. I love these kind of stories. It reminds me of the Dwarf Fortress “dead cats in taverns” bug [0], which just goes to show the detail that goes into these game mechanics.
It also reminds me of a trick used for a subway car in Fallout 3. Instead of actually implementing vehicles, there's an NPC running under the level whose head has been replaced with a train.
My recollection was that it was an item that took the pipboy 'slot', as another layer of 'the player should never be able to loot or equip this' protection.
[0] https://www.pcgamer.com/how-cats-get-drunk-in-dwarf-fortress...