One of life's mysteries explained

I know I'm not the only one that has an issue with socks missing their friends at laundry sorting time, I even have a little bucket for the orphaned socks, but I just discovered where some of them go (and it's not the dryer). You were thinking it was the dryer, right? We've all heard that the dryer eats socks, there are countless jokes and cartoons to that effect. So you might be surprised to hear that the washer just ate one of my daughter's socks, and I saw it do it.

I was starting a load of laundry and there was this blue sock up towards the top of the washer basket. I went to grab it to put it into the washer basket and it fell behind! In between where the basket is and the cabinet it sits in. Now there is a sock where I'm pretty sure a sock doesn't belong. I'm sure there is a motor and moving parts down there somewhere. I hope it doesn't break my washing machine. I really need to do some laundry today.