I have an iPhone that I do not know the password to, how do I get back into it?

We had an old employee turn in their iPhone 14 when they were leaving, however we didn't get a chance to wipe it when they did. The phone got put on a shelf and now no one knows who it belonged to (since the sticky note fell off) and no one knows the passcode.

We tried guessing it but it appears to have sent the phone into recovery mode. Now whenever we turn it on it goes to a white screen that says "Swipe up to recover" at the bottom. In all my time setting up these company iPhones, I've never run into this problem before.

Any failed attempt to guess the passcode sends the phone into lockdown for a few hours at a time. We don't care about the data on the phone, so if that's lost then that's fine. We just need to be able to set this perfectly good iPhone up for the next employee that starts with us.

What are my options? Do I have to send it in to Apple? Your advice and assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]