Digitalistic sketch pad bug is driving me nuts.

So I have a Sim who is in the style influencer career; she had a sketch pad in her inventory, but at some point set it down on a random surface outside of her apartment. She can still interact with it, but I can't get it back because the game thinks she no longer owns the item.

This has happened to my freelance artist (in a completely different save) as well. I've searched all over Google and Answers HQ, but there is no information on this bug that I can find anywhere.

I do not use mods and have already tried repairing the game/clearing cache files, to no avail.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.