Hood springs vanished!

Went to open the hood this afternoon so I could pull the light bulbs out of the DEPO euro headlight, left front (it gets moisture in there after driving in heavy rain) and aim my hair dryer at the hole to dry it out, but as I pulled the hood release in the grill, I noticed immediately that the hood was much heavier than ever before, in fact, if I raised it up to where it should stay and let go of the hood it would come down in a crash, or on my head!

Seems like overnight the springs that hold it up just out of nowhere have disappeared...strange!