True, but that wasn't my point. I probably didn't clarify it well. When I said "in the equipment" I meant that if the equipment was seized with the tapes still inside then they should have put evidence tape over the tape slots (or HDD bays and case if digital) and networking ports to keep the evidence "as found". We can never know for sure since the FIB is corrupt, but proper evidence handling by competent good people can go a long way.

BTW - congrats if you still have a VCR. My last one died a good 5 years ago, but I did copy all the old tapes to mkv (in HEVC format) for the grandkid(s) eventually. Same for the DVDs and BluRays. Plex works just fine to watch them instead of having to manually load tapes or discs.