so something is telling me to ask for advice before I stick this into my multimeter and risk damage to the device, component, or more importantly, me.
As this component has been in you junk box for some time, even if it initially was a charged capacitor it will now be discharged and safe. A few days is enough to let any capacitor discharge due to leakage currents. This is the only thing that can go wrong putting a meter across a device.