Open Thread: Abandoned Keys

Sometimes in the course of human events you come across something you're at a loss to explain.  Between the road and the train tracks lies a sidewalk with a chain link fence on the railroad side.  Beyond the tracks you can see the giant pile of sand (helpfully covered in black plastic so you wouldn't necessarily know it's a giant pile of sand) and a large oil storage thingy.

From the tracks to the road, inclusive, there is nothing that is simply being.  Tracks, sidewalk, road.  All things to move from point A to point B.  Nothing draws people to this spot, it is instead a place you move through.

If you're in a train you can't throw the keys out the window.  If you're in a car you (usually) can't pull the keys out of the ignition and toss them.  If you're on foot then it probably means you don't have a car since there's no reason to come here.  It is a place to pass through and said passing is best done in a vehicle.

So where did the keys come from?  Some of them are car keys.  If the owner had a car it is unlikely they walked here.  Even if the owner didn't, if they are mere vestigial car keys, what here, not there, could have made the keys remain?  There's nothing that makes here a more likely place for keys to fall from one's pocket.

And who put the keys in the fence?

Was it the former owner, telling them that this was their new home?  A good Samaritan hoping that when the owner came back looking for lost keys they'd notice them?  A conceptual artist hoping to stimulate thought?

We can posit many possible explanations, some are even reasonable, but we can never know.

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