Originally posted by Rhapsody:

Perhaps you'll one day meet a fuling with a familiar looking spear.

LOL, that made me laugh.

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

As for getting encumbered, that really shouldn't happen, but it seemed like that also happened to me recently, although not in combat. I wonder if it's a new bug?

I'm sorry, I misspoke. I wasn't actually encumbered, just at max capacity, such that auto-pickup of the spear would have made me encumbered. I assume that is the reason it did not auto-return like it normally does.
I normally make sure to toggle loot pickup off during combat if I am going to use the spear, for that very reason. But it all happened so fast. haha