Apple "found" my stolen iPhone 5S

Several months ago after I purchased my iPhone 5S it was stolen and I immediately put it in lost mode in Find my iPhone. Today William from "Apple" (employee ID: ****) called me and told me they found my phone and would mail it back to me after I verified my details. The normal stuff, name and address was asked for which I verified, then they asked for my AppleID which I reluctantly gave him and then he asked my for my AppleID password which at that point I was pretty sure it was a scam or this employee was phishing for information he is not supposed to. I told him I was not comfortable giving him my password and he said that was okay but for them to mail me a refurbished iPhone 5S (he said they don't mail the original) I'd need to login to Find my iPhone and remove the phone from the Find my iPhone account. I was driving and said I'd look into it when I got home and for them to call me back later. I got home and called AppleID support and they confirmed Apple will NEVER ask for your AppleID password so I wrote it off as a scam and expected not to hear back from the caller.

About 20 minutes after I got off the phone with AppleID support someone else from the number that William called me from called me back as a follow-up. I told him that I called AppleID support and I knew it was a scam and was ready to hang up and he said that they are Apple and asked if I wanted to talk to his supervisor. His supervisor immediately got on the phone and I told him the situation and he confirmed that asking for a password goes against their policy and asked for Williams ID which I game him. He apologized for the incident and said that they have enough information for get a refurbished iPhone 5S out to me but first I need to remove the stolen phone from Find my iPhone. The customer service number that they originally gave me to call back is 916-232-**** and the number that they called me from both times is 916-292-**** which seem to both be around the Bay area in orgin and the background did sounds like a call center and none of the three guys I talked to sounded like Nigerian Princes.

Is this real and did rogue employee William ask for more information than he was supposed to trying to gain access to my AppleID account or is this indeed a scam and if I remove the phone from Find my iPhone will they be able to use the phone?

<Edited By Host>