Sounds strange. It happened to me several years ago when at last minute at check-in I realised that I lost my Finnair tickets and it was too late even to try to find them anywhere (hotel/taxi/etc). I've been forwarded to ticketing desk who just asked me for passport and travel details (dates/segments) to verify that most probably it is really me and reissued tickets. I've paid an equivalent of about 50 or 100 dollars as penalty and that's the end of the story.