Bypassing iCloud Activation Lock

At my job, we have an iPad in our lost & found storage that has not been claimed for a little over 2 years. During the first couple of weeks, we kept the iPad power on hoping that the owner would use Find my iPad/iPhone option to locate the device and contact us, but this never happened. Since it's been over 2 years and the iPad has not been claimed, we wanted to give the device to the employee who found it; however, since the iPad has the iCloud Activation Lock with the previous owner's credentials, it is pretty much useless.

Today, we took the iPad to an Apple Store to ask if they could either bypass the Activation Lock and factory reset it or get the original owner contact information and return it to them. The Apple Genius who assisted us said that there was nothing that could be done and we should just trash the iPad. We were perplexed with her response, thanked her for her "assistance" and left. So now, I'm asking the Apple Community, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Apple have the ability/technology to access any of their devices?