Messaged some of the guys who did the cache, they pointed me towards something like this. Got it off of harbor freight, it's named "magnetic pickup tool."
They're long and flexible to get boogers from way up in the elephant's trunk. At least that's the juvenile humor logic.
Usually they're sold as a retrieval tool for dropped bolts in an engine bay. Nobody wants to have to pull a bunch of components to get something you dropped in an area where hands can't fit.