Blockquote"It’s just really amazing that someone discarded hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of commercial aviation parts, even if they are non-functional."
That should really not be that surprising. Our shop discards millions of dollars of ‘non-functional parts’ every year because they are life-limited or cracked/corroded/worn/damaged beyond limits, and there are only so many people interested in scrap for desk/wall/office corner pieces.