Approximate size? It kind of looks like it might be the casing to a light explosive that you set off like a match stick. We call them 'strijkers' in the Netherlands. Only difference is the bigger underside there.
Roughly 6 inches or 15 cm. I thought it was an unexploded firework from a distance but it looks like it's made of steel and plastic. For context, it was (and still is afaik) laying on the edge of the parking lot of a dog park near a small airport.
I don't know where you are, but if your local PD has a slow line then you might try calling that and describe it to them. I say to use the slow line because it could be nothing and it's probably not an emergency as long as no one's fucking with it; but if there's a possibility that it might be explosive then someone should check it out.
I can't really see it being anything other than a casing of some sort. Considering the shape, size and materials it would have to be something pressurised, maybe a gas. This is not typically what nitrous tanks look like (the ones people are doing in traffic for a laugh oh my god what has happened to this world).
I've seen some applications of drugs but this does not look like any of them.
So as far as I can tell it's either going to be something to do with construction or it's something very specific to either dogs or aviation.
Edit: considering the car park, could it be like a shell one would put on the longer end of a spark plug? They usually come in boxes without cases or shells but maybe a very particular one has this as a protective cover and someone has been fiddling with their vehicle there?
Not spark plug related. Way too big, and it looks to me like the ends are made of concrete. You can see the aggregate exposed by the chipping, especially on the large end.
I'm going to go with a post on which a chain link fence gate swings. This would sit in a hole in a concrete pad, the gate would have a metal loop that goes over it near the ground, and a second similar hinge piece on top that affixes to the fence.