How to reactivate an Ipod touch ?

Hi, one of my mother's friend just sent me her girl's ipod touch, (I believe its 3rd Gen but i'm not sure and even if i asked them they wouldn't know they're computer retards, guess why the had me repair it -_-)

So, here's the problem. The Ipod touch claims to be desactivated. The writing is in french, since i'm in quebec, but litteraly translated in english it should look something like : ipod is deactivated, Connect to itunes. So being the good boy that i am i obeyed and copnnected it to my iTunes at home, but my iTunes wont recognise the iPod touch claiming that it's locked by a password, and it asks me to unlock the iPod touch before i can connect it to iTunes.

I guess you see the loop of doom that i'm now in. I pod needs to be connected to itunes to do anything, itunes wants a unlocked itouch to recognise it... long story short, i'm screwed.

Now, i,ve looked for the past 30 minutes on internet trying to find a solution to this but no one seems to have the problem since no answers can be found anywhere. I've got things for frozen ipods and other things, but nothing about a fully deactivated ipod. Oh, and the nearest apple store is like 300 Km away, distance i shall not drive only for a stupidity like that.

Assistance would be greatly appreciated, thanks everyone for caring and happy new year.