He also, more unfairly, never gave her the option to take that money before making a second pick and losing it in turn when she did. Declaring they had it/making it an automatic pick isn't bad necessarily, and could see Bob doing the same thing actually in that situation. But what I couldn't ever imagine him doing, is letting the game proceed normally without allowing the contestant the chance to take that money before playing on. That was the worst part of this to me.
What else could they have done?
They could stop tape, get somebody from S&P backstage ASAP, and reshuffle the numbers. Gameplay-wise, that’s probably the best decision, but that has its own tradeoffs, and I don’t think they would consider it unless it was the car that got revealed.
They could just play the game normally and let the contestant decide whether to pick the cash amount or not, but that leaves you with the potentially awkward scenario where the contestant decides to take the already revealed “sure thing” on their last pick instead of trying to find the car.
IMO giving her the option to bail with the cash amount before making an actual “pick” would be even less fair—every other contestant has to use one of their picks before they’re eligible to win something. Allowing her to quit right off the bat would essentially give her four picks instead of three.
(IIRC she won three picks, and won the car on her last pick)