Recognise it?

It’s a thing that does a thing.

Maurice writes:

“An engineer who works with me left this piece of equipment on the footpath near St. Stephens Green {Dublin] last Thursday evening after completing a site visit. It is called an inclinometer and is used to record deflections in retaining walls and slopes.
He left it on the footpath when putting the rest of his stuff in the boot of his car and drove off without it, only realising it over the weekend when he went to take it out of the car.
He got in contact with DCC and it was spotted by the street cleaning crew at about 9 on Thursday but they never picked it up. Any help would be greatly appreciated as it will cost almost €7k to replace it!!”

Anyone?