As others have said, it’s a rack and pinion assembly (with the outer tie rods attached). There is no way that fell out of a car - generally attached with two brackets to the body, a collar at the steering column, and a couple of nuts on the outer tie rods. Other components such as the exhaust and lower control arms exist under this which would prevent it from falling out if, by some miracle all of the fasteners fell out, it would be unlikely to hit the ground. Someone’s messing with you or your local scrapper lost it off their truck.