Laravel find is returning an array instead of an object

In my local the return is as expected an object, but in our development box it's returning an array. What configs should I check as to why it's returning an array instead of an object?

The code is \App\Models\TheModel::find($id);

Is this perhaps a model specific problem? Since other calls are returning objects as intended this specific model on this specific page is having this error.

The Model:

<?php

namespace App\Models;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\SoftDeletes;

class TheModel extends MyBaseModel
{
    use SoftDeletes;

    public $dates         = ['deleted_at'];
}

via Chebli Mohamed