I understand how you feel. I was supposed to receive in December 14 (yes, 14) Panasonic AG-1980 S-VHS decks from the IT department at the school board after having a discussion with the ICT guy I work with, and one of the IT managers. Some of the 1980s were supposedly in "pristine condition"- as in they never left board headquarters - and still had their original documentation, etc., while the others were from other secondary schools across Dufferin-Peel that were just retired from regular use.
Anyway, the day the ICT guy was supposed to pickup the 1980s, and deliver it to my school (my school had their annual "Jingle Jam" event going on the week prior to Christmas Break, and he said he was bringing in some extra monitors, mics, etc. for the setup), he discovered that the units had been disposed of the night before by yes- you guessed it- a group of janitors who had, for some bizarre reason, not received the memo to leave these machines alone. Thus, an opportunity lost (although I already have a decent editing system composed of two AG-1980s, and a JVC duplicator).
I really don't understand why there is so much miscommunication with janitors (not to say that all of them are bad- there are some I know at my school that inform me when they are about to throw out some old equipment- be it A/V equipment, or computers). It kind of makes you wonder if the management is really all that effective within an institution.