Dude... ripping off vinyl is seriously bad karma. Eight months from now dude's gonna come home and wanna play some Santana and it's gonna be gone. And then he's gonna look through and wonder what else is gone. And then he's gonna walk all around his house, racking his brain for what else has turned up missing, and he's going to hate every.single.person that has been in his house and he's gonna pull all his books and all his vinyl so that nobody can enjoy it. And then he's gonna pepper his house with "don't fucking touch my vinyl" stickers and it's gonna suck for everyone. Do yourself a favor. Send 'em back. Anonymously is fine, but send 'em back. Ripping off another man's record collection is a serious dick move.
You're right. I felt pretty bad about it. The reason I followed through was because these records clearly hadn't been touched or moved for long enough that there was dust and dusty-webby-stringy stuff coating the stacks. I had to cover my face from the dust that kicked up from flipping through the collection. There wasn't even a record player in his home. But you're right. I'll think about sending them back.
Listened to or not, he hadn't gotten rid of them. Ponder that for a minute. To steal someone's music is to steal their past. I had ave rats rip off my CD collection in '96 and ever since, when I remember snippets of songs I wonder if I own it or if it's one of the lost ones.
I concur with klein that you should send them back. My dad has his old drum set packed away and getting all dusty in his storage room. He hasn't played it for years and maybe never will again. But there's a lot of good memories that go along with it for him. Not to mention the potential of an appreciation in value. I could imagine he'd be pretty bummed/annoyed if someone stole it, regardless of how the perpetrator justified their actions. Sure, a drum set is arguably a bigger 'thing' than a few records, but in principle it's the same. Just because someone doesn't actively use something, it doesn't mean it's not of value to them.