Workers and shoppers at Bayview Corner searching for a parking place Thursday were surprised to find a 50-foot manufactured home-on-wheels had beaten them to the punch.

The apparently abandoned home, softly sagging in the cold morning air, was left sometime in the middle of the night in the lot owned by Goosefoot Community Fund.

All through the house, not a creature was stirring, including the dead mouse in the kitchen sink.

Rotting food in the refrigerator combined with an unflushed toilet provided an indefinable odor that permeated the space. A damp, smelly rag lurked in the washing machine; someone had once applied a decorative red border design near the ceiling but it had faded over time.

In the bedroom, trash, a broken bed frame and a torn picture of a little girl offered few clues as to why and how the trailer found its way to Bayview.

It wasn’t much to look at from the outside, either. Moss covered the roof, a light bulb dangled from a broken fixture near the door, and the aluminum siding was dented here and there.

Debbie Torget, a manager at Goosefoot Community Fund, the owner of the parking lot, tried to make light of the situation.

“We’re all for affordable housing, but this isn’t part of the plan,” she said.

The property owners called police to report the unwanted drop-off. But just after noon on Thursday, a truck from Site Inspection Services drove up and its driver began to hook-up the trailer.

“The axle broke in the night and we had to get parts up in Oak Harbor,” the driver said. He refused to give his name, but insisted he had gotten permission to park the home on the property from an unnamed source.

“A miscommunication probably; an island thing,” Torget noted.

The home was expected to be moved to Portland, Ore. following repairs.