Name: Ronnie (Veronica) Southeastern PA (Zone 6b) Count your blessings, be grateful
I don't know anything about using straw bales as a growing medium but I do compost all my goat hay and there is never any smell. My concern would be did they enter the property without permission...it's not up to them to dispose of something that is on someone else property. If they had a problem with something they should have contacted you or your aunt or even the authorities first.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.