Over the years I've regularly found myself repeatedly taking items only for lowbies to repeatedly retrieve, and sometimes I've been that lowbie.

It would happen without any ooc connections. Just imagine a hero raider that hero defenders don't show up against, or do show up but escape alive. Raider will come back for another shot at them or to shame them into defending. But they won't be keen to retrieve, and will likely send lowbies.

It's why as a scion I sometimes handed the orb to some Orc to down. If heroes were on but wouldn't try to defend or retrieve, I would eventually make it impossible for their lowbies to do it for them.