Q: How to find a Owner of a iPad Mini

Toss it or put it in a drawer. Without the owner's Apple ID and password the device is useless to you.

A recycle bin may be the best place to drop it. Least it go into a landfill.

Or certain parts may be re-usable if they weren't tied to the ownership

question and inability to locate or return the product to the legal owner.

There should be a better way to re-distribute these when they're otherwise

disowned or discarded; or simply lost and the original owner isn't sure what

to do. Or has given up; since a finder or an official law enforcement agency

cannot determine the name or present contact info of the owner, by looking

at the outside of the case. Seems like a waste of resources, though secure.

A second level 'apple care' product could involve the recovery of lost or stolen

items, to use an internal secure technology and method of contacting owners.

Reminds me of a car, a nice Honda Accord, I found on a seldom-used dirt road

and when reported to the state troopers (in person, I drove 75 miles to report it)

they acted disinterested; it had not been reported as stolen. I suggested they

could take my information on the vehicle and maybe ask the owners if it was

missing; after all, maybe they were on vacation or out of the country. A genuine

lack of interest can lead to a product owner never reconnecting to their iDevice.

PS: the car was still on the dirt road a month later, the troopers didn't find it worthy.

Anyway, all this technology and there isn't an excuse to add to the waste stream.

Oh well, you can only try... I've seen places where they have a bin and you just drop

stuff into there; and walk away. Nobody says anything unless you drop soda cans in.

Unwanted or unmarketable used parts maybe aren't reused. However there are those

shops in Mall locations that fix out-of-warranty iDevices. And some online companies

offer various condition new or grades of used (price varies by condition) parts. The

screen should fit any similar build model year production of the same brand/type item.

Probably easier to be shed of various recyclable batteries, since several shops and

municipal or city waste management locations accept & have specific bins for them.

I've heard in some locations they may empty recycle bins into the regular landfill bin

so one has to be watchful especially if you pay extra to have waste correctly handled.

Anyway, good luck & keep trying!

Being disappointed in Apple is somewhat misguided. In our litigious society, they (and rightly so) want nothing to do with your data.

If they took it from you under any circumstances and did anything that involved data loss for the original owner... we'd be reading about in the papers or seeing it on 60 Minutes.

"iPad owner finally hears about lost unit with his wedding pictures on it. Then discovers Apple recycled it for parts.

Told that a good samaritan had actually turned the iPad into OSU Campus Police a while ago, the irate owner replied... "I don't care,  they, Apple, had no right to delete my pictures"

Owner is now suing Apple for eleventy bajillion dollars (and a new iPad) for emotional suffering."

Hmmmm. I thought you were trying to return it, not Apple, so I don't understand why it's "too much for Apple." Sounds more like it's too much for you.