Just go to above areas. In the case of Novo, I had just got jumped by a Z, and I guess he caught my pants, but they still pristine in the game...that same notice at NE airfield referred to loot (same cargo pants I as I have on, but different color...I think they were supposed to spawn in less-than-pristine, but the graphic showed pristine, and they reported as that when I put mouse over them, but I got the notice on my screen (didn't get screen shot at the time, sorry).