How do I reset a locked, abandoned iPhone 7?

The owner has obviously abandoned the phone and is unresponsive. Now what?

I found an iPhone 7 along a very busy road with 50mph traffic. It’s screen was completely shattered and pieces of its Otter Box case we’re spread out across a 50ft stretch of road (so I assume it was run over a few times). Amazingly, other than the screen, the phone was still on and everything else was in working order - so a new screen is all that’s needed. I plugged the phone in at my house a block away figuring the owner could gps locate the phone and retrieve it - didn’t happen. Even though passcode locked, I figured I might be able to answer the phone (button still worked). Several days and nothing but spam but from the nature of the spam I could conclude the this must have been a brand new phone for the user. Finally, I discovered that I could get Siri to read to me the recent missed messages, missed calls and was able to place a return call to the owner’s brother who answered. I explained the situation and how I was trying to return the phone to the owner. Turns out she lives out of state and wasn’t interested in recovering the phone as she already got a new one. Regardless, I offered my contact info and offered to mail it. No follow up by the owner and they are unresponsive. It’s now been several weeks. So I consider this totally abandoned.

Soooo... Obviously, I don’t want to fix it if if it can still be bricked. Can I now claim ownership? How can I reset and reregister it?

Abandoned iPhone 7

• still works fine
• passcode locked
• smashed screen