iPad legally belongs to me, has different Apple ID, would apple reset so I can use it under my ID?

Sorta long story: I work in a student staffed IT office at my university, wayyy back at the beginning of the school year, late September, someone brought in their iPad to be wiped and updated. We mainly work with laptops and not mobile device but we said sure anyway because why not, it was a simple thing to do. They didn't provide their Apple ID which was obviously required to wipe it so we called them and they came back in and provided their email and password and we put it back to be worked on later. The password they provided didin't work, we tried calling the owner for 2 weeks straight and they never answered and they had no voicemail set up. So this iPad sat in our storage until today when I asked my boss if I could have it, he said of course as office policy and the work order the owner signed (which I have) says that any property left with us for more than 30 days is ours to keep/sell/own.

My question is, would Apple reset this iPad for me if I brought it into the store and showed the work order form and such? I've tried all day for the life of me to try the original provided password with different letters that are hard to distinguish but I've had no luck. It's running iOS 7 by the way. Thank you for any help/suggestions/advice!