Air Tag Reset

My air tag came out of the box unable to connect to my iPhone 13. I bought 2 boxes of 4 tags each and this one is the only one I had trouble connecting to, so it isn't my phone, my process or my updates. I changed the battery and no luck. Then I stumbled onto the directions to manually reset my air tag. I removed the battery no less than 20 times, but finally got the magic chime and suddenly my phone will connect! Except now it says it is connected to another iPhone account and it will not reset again. I literally removed the battery until it ran down and had to put in another new battery. My phone still can connect, but as soon as I name it, it tells me it is connected to another account. I have tried using the lost item to find the account it is attached to, but it gives me no information about what account it might be attached to. Please Advise!!