On Monday, May 27, 2019 at 7:30:39 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
By coincidence, I'm out doing errands today, same day as above, and I
went to Best Buy even though I shoudlnt' have bothered and only spent 5
minutes, but as I was driving out, I saw one of those valve wrenches
sticking two feet out of the sidewalk, with no one around.

In some areas it is standard practice to leave the wrench in the hole, when you're working on the water. It's a message to others who might notice water not working and think it is broken, or who might come by and turn it back on with their own wrench at the worst time.

That's a local custom, I'm not sure how widespread it is.