Stabilzer Bar Links

[vxaxv17]

Ok so for the past few months I've had this pop/clunk on the drivers side of my truck when making a left turn into parking lots, driveways, etc. I brought it to 2 different dealers and both told me they found no problems with the vehicle. It didnt seem to affect anything - it was just annoying - so i dealt with it for a while. Now the other day Im taking advantage of the nicer weather and polishing up my rims and i notice the stabilzer link on the drivers side is just gone. Not a single piece of it is left. Theres just an open hole in the bar itself and another in the lower control arm. The passenger side is intact.

 

Now i'd like to think that this was not the case when I brought it to the 2 dealers (I would hope they'd notice this missing) but I do not know for sure. What im thinking was that the popping/clunking noise I heard was the link just being loose and that sometime afterwards it finally fell out.

 

Has anyone else seen this happen? My truck is an 02 with 68k miles on it. This seems quite premature to me especially considering that 75% of the time its driven on the road. I have since ordered a new part and will be installing it shortly but im curious to hear if this has happened to others.