A friend and I were playing on the new update and had just ran from the north east airstrip to the south west balota airstrip carrying tons of gear. Checking out the new features (Paint and acquiring a sawed off shutgun etc.) When I found I could not pick up an item (It allowed me to drag it but no inventory slots taken up and the item remained on the floor) To solve this I logged out and used steam to join the same server as my friend. Whereupon I was found on the coast with no gear. Hopping through a few other servers (Some connected to the hive some not) I could not reproduce the problem and get my character to "randomly" respawn. It was a one time shot and I don't know what it was.
HOWEVER my friend also logged off the server and was new spawned as well. So it happened to both of us. Still don't know why.
Sucks to throw 8 hours at a character and have it wiped though! Hope this helps you fix the problem asap!