No, they did not "have" to destroy them. They destroyed them because it was the easy thing to do. They could have re-titled, re-sold as scrap, without destroying. Same to me as watching all the building demo video's. Perfectly good buildings, blown up, destroyed, just to make room for a newer model, etc. etc. Such a waste of material, time, and money. What if they had found a container full of once stolen, gold bars? Would they have destroyed them? NO WAY JOSE!