Frankly I’m doubtful of the second one because a key box is typically secured much better, as it contains something important (the keys to access something, typically a house).
The most I can give you now is that the two “fins” at the bottom are for holding the bottom in place with the two locks on the side. The locks are very simple pin/tumbler locks (which is why I would doubt it’d be for keeping better keys in). The housing looks to be about half inch thick.
I’m not sure if it’s any sort of watchmen’s clock device because campus police doesn’t tend to patrol on foot, and it’s not really in a place that you can park next to and run over to do whatever it is should be done there.
I’m getting really tempted to just loosen the bolts with a wrench, and crack it open in my room, but it doesn’t seem like much of better idea than what Pandora pulled off.
This thread reminds me of the old TV show “The Liar’s Club” where a panel of ‘Liars’ were given an item, and each gave an explanation of what the item was (but only 1 knew what it really was), and what it was used for. The show contestants then had to WAG on who was lying and who was telling the truth.
No ideas on what the doohickey in question is, just posting to say “So that’s what those things on the doors of the houses-for-sale are!” (y’see, I’m a newspaper photographer and I occasionally take pictures of the houses for the real estate ads, and never knew what those things were)
It doesn’t look like the ones at work, which are just little magnetic buttons that one reads with a “pipe”, a small tubular reader that records the time.
Since it’s on a fence around transformers, maybe it’s got something to do with that…some sort of electrician’s tool, perhaps, for servicing the equipment?