This happened to me on a test drive of a stock dealership fist with 7 miles on it. I drove it 2 miles from the dealer, and started my "test methods", and it ended up stuck in 4th. It was an awkward drive back to the dealer, but I'd seen enough. I drove 4 hours a couple days later to buy a fist with recaros.
At the time, the car was not mine to tear apart. But after it started happening to my car at the track, I got really scared then when I found it, I was happy it wasn't anything major.
A doubled over set of zip ties in an "x" shape to hold it in would prob solve it.
Funny story... I had a saturn SL1 that I powered shifted ( I know... ) and I thought I broke the trans. I went and pulled a new trans for it 80 miles from home, the next weekend, cleared my Sat/Sun to get it swapped and.... Step #1 remove shift linkage inside car. Step #2.... Return trans to junkyard. Lol. I thought I broke the trans and it was just crappy linkage. Luckly, I didn't waste anything but time...