(author) I'm also curious about this, which is part of why I was hesitant to accept them at first. Many of them have price tags on them and look like they have changed hands several times, which makes me believe they are indeed stolen. My best guess is that the reason they gave them to me is because they don't know who the original owner is, and being in LA there are many, many potential candidates.
Based on the age and condition, I highly doubt they're stolen -- they're probably just trash. Maybe they were stolen from someone else who was trying to sell trash records, but I doubt they were stolen from anywhere legit unless it was from the dollar bins that a record store uses to make a little bit of money off of essentially trash. You may find some that are nice to have/listen to, but you probably won't find anything valuable (to a record store).
I've picked up crates of much better condition records as trash before, with many great records that could have been sold for OK prices, if the person throwing them away knew where to sell them and wanted to bother with it. But a lot of people/places just don't want to even both with it. Best prices come from selling them one by one on a site like like discogs, but that takes a lot of time and effort. If you bring them into a record store that buys used records, they'll either take a few they think they can sell (paying you a fraction of what they intend to sell it for) and tell you to keep all the rest, or they'll take the whole thing (again paying just a fraction for the few they want) and treat the others as bargain/dollar bin stuff or just throw them away.
(Some of my favorite things I've found in crates of thrown-away records: some Sergio Mendes records (some were bland, but some were awesome), various new wave 80s records by people I'd never heard of but were fun to listen to, LOTS of good classical recordings.)
Ah, makes sense. I do music production on the side, so I'm really hyped about these even if they do mostly turn out to be trashy — "it's not low-quality, it's ~~vintage~~". Plus, the unplayable ones make great wall art!
I'm very excited to find some unique pieces to chop up! I don't work with samples too often, so I guess this is the universe's way of telling me I should start doing it more!
The cops gave you a problem. They gave you something that was not theirs to give.
If it had been me then I would have said "great, now I have to go and get legal advice". I would have refused them.
But at the same time what am I supposed to do? Unload them in the impound lot and drive away? That'd piss off the cops, who could possibly fine me for flytipping.
It's a shitty position for the cops to put you in.
