History Main / EerilyOutOfPlaceObject

* In Terry Pratchett's ''Literature/{{Strata}}'', the protagonist, Kin, works for a company that uses [[{{Terraform}} terraforming]] to build new worlds from the ground up, (complete with false geological, fossil, and archeological records to conceal these planets' true natures from their future inhabitants), and it's her job to find and correct unauthorized out-of-place artifacts left by other builders attempting to troll future archeologists, a prank which the company believes [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds might potentially topple said archeologists' civilizations if left unchecked]]. One notable example is a fossilized plesiosaur skeleton in the wrong stratum [[RefugeInAudacity holding a placard reading "End Nuclear Testing Now"]].

* The miniseries ''[[ComicBook/DCRebirth DC Universe: Rebirth]]'' ends with the [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Comedian's button]] being found ''lodged in the wall of the Batcave.'' Since ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' doesn't even exist in the main DCU, its origin is a complete mystery, which ComicBook/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/TheFlash investigate over the course of the subsequent crossover ''ComicBook/TheButton.''
* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': During a visit to an archeological dig Jack Drake comes across an amulet that does not fit the culture or time period, and the overseer decides they don't want to try and account for it and so tell him to go ahead and take the mysterious thing home. It is, of course, a possessed cursed trinket that ended up embedded in the earth years ago while the ComicBook/{{JSA}} was fighting an evil sorceress.
* DC's time traveler Walker Gabirel, the second Chronos, is stuck in the Wild West and realizes he's stumbled across another time traveler when he finds a music player and headphones amongst her supplies.

* There's a campfire story about a teenage girl babysitting for her neighbours. The evening is going well, but there's a statue of a clown in the parents' bedroom that [[MonsterClown she finds unsettling]]. After she puts the kids to bed, the parents call to check in, and she asks if she can cover up the clown, since it makes her uncomfortable. The parents are alarmed and confused, telling her "[[NobodyHereButUsStatues We don't have a clown statue...]] Get the children out of the house!"

* In the ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' supplement ''Project Rainbow'', a kind of special radiation [[spoiler:related to Crawford Tillinghast's invention from the Creator/HPLovecraft story "From Beyond]] allows for an extremely limited form of time travel. In one of the sample adventures provided, the GameMaster is [[KillerGameMaster encouraged]] to have a Player Character come across their own fossilized remains, foretelling that they will fall victim to a time travel malfunction very soon.

* There's a ghost story about a teenage girl babysitting for her neighbours. The evening is going well, but there's a statue of a clown in the parents' bedroom that [[MonsterClown she finds unsettling]]. After she puts the kids to bed, the parents call to check in, and she asks if she can cover up the clown, since it makes her uncomfortable. The parents are alarmed and confused, telling her "[[NobodyHereButUsStatues We don't have a clown statue...]] Get the children out of the house!"

** In "Dagon", a shipwrecked sailor washes up on a newly-formed island thrown up to the surface by volcanic activity, covered in the rotting mess of deep-sea life that didn't survive the ascent - but the island already contains a mysterious stone monolith that is unmistakably the product of deliberate crafstmanship.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': The polar bear. Seemingly out of place on an island in the pacific. [[spoiler:This later is revealed to be part of one of the Dharma Initiative's experiments.]]

* These pop up occasionally in ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'', with one of the more notable examples being the lighthouse with the red beacon on the top of the mountain in the middle of a desert otherworld with no human inhabitants, and a miniature (and very hostile) civilization beneath the floorboards of the bowling alley. The latter eventually declares war on our world, while the former plays an important and very un-lighthouse-like role in one of Night Vale's larger and more [[{{Mindscrew}} mindscrewy]] crises. Neither is ever fully explained.

* Spies in ''VideoGame/EmperorRiseOfThe, while MiddleKingdom'' will appear as a random worker walking around the city. But the location and occupation are random, so they could easily be a completely inappropriate worker, such as a food salesman in the industrial district or a miner walking around the residential area.

* If you play the supplemental "Batgirl: A Matter of Family" from ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', wander around in some of the random corners of the amusement park long enough, and you'll eventually come face-to-eye with [[{{Franchise/Superman}} Starro]], in a tank hidden in a dark enclosed area.
* Spies in ''VideoGame/EmperorRiseOfTheMiddleKingdom'' will appear as a random worker walking around the city. But the location and occupation are random, so they could easily be a completely inappropriate worker, such as a food salesman in the industrial district or a miner walking around the residential area.

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'' has the random vehicles in [[NoobCave The Lost Village}} by the virtue of being one of the few reminders, along with the occasional handgun, that the game takes place in the future - 2036 in fact. This doesn't make them any less out of place in a jarringly way.

* In the film version of ''Film/IAmLegend'', Richard Neville, apparently the last man on earth, has set up a whole series of mannequins in specific places, where he interacts and speaks to them to ease his loneliness. And then one day, one of them is far out of place...

* If you play the supplemental "Batgirl: A Matter of Family" from ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', wander around in some of the random corners of the amusement long enough, and you'll eventually come face-to-eye with [[{{Franchise/Superman}} Starro]], in a tank hidden in a dark enclosed area.

* If you play the supplemental "Batgirl: A Matter of Family" from ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', wander around in some of the random corners of the amusement long enough, and you'll eventually come face-to-eye with [[Franchise/Superman Starro]], in a tank hidden in a dark enclosed area.

* DC's time traveler Walker Gabirel, the second Chronos, is stuck in the Wild West and realizes he's stumbled across another time traveler when he finds a ''Walkman'' amongst her supplies.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia: Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''. The iconic lamppost in the forest of the otherwise medieval world of Narnia. Not creepy, but its uncanny sense of not-belonging served to make the otherworld feel all the more otherworldly. The prequel ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'' explains that it was accidentally transported there from London while Narnia was still in the process of being formed and literally took root as it were a tree because of all the magic in the place.

Depending on the story, the out-of-place object may never be explained, and may possibly not even serve any real role in the story beyond contributing to the general uncanny ''off'' atmosphere of an already creepy locale, while in other settings these are [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight merely]] the result of TimeTravel or [[TeleportersAndTransporters Teleportation]], though [[NothingIsScarier leaving it unexplained is often the most effectively unsettling]].

Related to OntologicalMystery, which is when the thing you find somewhere you can't explain with no idea how it got there is ''yourself''. Supertrope to SaharanShipwreck, where a ship is found far away from water (e.g. in the middle of a desert). Compare AnachronisticClue.

[[folder:Film]]

** This was the original point of the [=TARDIS=] being a police box — the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild first story]] has it mysteriously found in a fog-bound scrapyard, and then appearing on prehistoric Earth. Now forgotten, as the police box is now known by most viewers only as the [=TARDIS=], and it's become an object of comfort.