If you left the sensor connected all the time you were working, I would say it's more likely to be the sensor has been knocked - they tend to go brittle over time. The outer sheath on the ABS loom is quite robust, you would really have to lean on it to damage it.
If you disconnected the ABS sensor and switch on the ignition (to turn the steering) it will think the sensor is missing and save it as an error - VW does not let critical safety errors clear themselves, and not all code readers clear these errors.
Either way it will need to be cleared, it seems you need a better code reader that can clear ABS