More likely, they simply couldn’t figure out how copy and study the data with their Cellebrite box or whatever, then some older worker mocked them for not recognizing a floppy disk, and so they coped with the resulting feeling of humiliation using a temper tantrum.

In the US, such destruction requires a certain import form to be included with the item, if the item, after destruction, can be returned to the recipient.

The form was not included, ergo, this was not a legal destruction: this was a grade A fuckup.