IPAD Mini locked - No receipt

I paid for an IPAD Mini at my Verizon store in December of 2016. A present for my grandson. I found out a few months ago he hasn't been able to use it because it wanted his apple password and he couldn't remember it. I had also been paying for network access through Verizon for it. Well, I began the LONG journey of trying to get it to working. I reset his apple ID (after a few weeks waiting for verification of identity through Apple). I then wiped it and reset it. It won't take the new Apple ID and password. It wants the original one. Now Apple has locked it. I contacted Verizon who does not have a receipt from 2016. I got on my account and printed off invoices showing it was on my account, including pages showing the IMEI number and sent those to Apple. They turned my documentation down twice. I went to the Apple store. They also turned me down, saying they can ONLY take the original receipt. I realize this is for our own protection, but it seems to me to also be Apple's way of making you buy a new IPAD!. I didn't ask for the protection and now have a perfectly good, useless IPAD. Can anything be done?