[s-cars] galvanic corrosion resulting in loose lug nuts: BS or not?

[David Cahill]

A buddy of mine (who is not fortunate enough to have an S-Car) has a B5 A4
2.8L. After a recent alignment and tire rotation, he was driving down the
highway and noticed some serious wheel vibration. Ten seconds later, voila,
the cause is identified -- there's only ONE lug nut left in the driver's
side front wheel.

He confronted the shop about the missing lug nuts, and they had something
interesting to say. They say that they properly installed the lug nuts and
torqued them to spec, but the lug nuts likely fell out due to galvanic
corrosion.

Here's my question: has anyone heard of this happening? Is this total BS? My
gut instinct is that galvanic corrosion of the wheel wouldn't cause the lug
nuts to unscrew themselves. That, and I've simply never heard of this
happening despite the fact that there are 100,000s of Avus wheels out on the
road.

Thoughts?

TIA,
Dave