Not sure what to do

I was talking to an employee at a scrap yard years ago and saw several big reels of copper that had red tags on them. I questioned him about the copper and he said when they receive what they consider suspicious copper they tag it and get the police involved to see if it's stolen. This yard gives you a receipt for your copper and you can have a check mailed to you or come back in 5 days to pick it up. If everything's cool you get your check.
Who in their right mind would ever take 1000 pounds of perfectly good, I'm assuming on reels, wire to a scrapyard? You're asking for trouble unless you can prove it's not stolen.
You may as well go in waving a big red flag if you decide to try to sell it.