Can Apple Remove Activation Lock in-store?

Hi all,

Having a few issues with my iPhone 8 - When I could use it, it kept popping up asking me for my password, I put it in and it went, however it happened a few times. Then it came up as though my password was wrong, so after many attempts it locked my account and somehow ended up telling me I can reset after 10 days. At this stage I could still use my phone just not get anything from the App Store - With me only getting it recently, I didn't have any purchased apps anyway so I wasn't too bothered. Then I needed something from the app store and I obviously couldn't so I thought ' I could create a new apple id, link to my phone and everything will be okay ' So I did a hard reset, erased everything then it came up that the device is in Activation Lock mode and it is locked to this specific id (my old one) So I was left with no phone, spoke to Apple and they asked me to send proof of purchase and the account it was locked to, so I sent a statement from the company I got the phone from - a few days later they called and said it wasn't enough as the original agent didn't put in the IMEI number and a few other things, also that the statement wasn't classed as 'proof of purchase' so I called the company, asked them for this 'proof of purchase' which took three days to email. I now have this, when I called today the lady I spoke to agreed i'd been waiting too long, their agent made an error and so on, so she said the quickest way for it to be done is to take the phone and proof of purchase to the nearest Apple Store and if they're satisfied, they can unlock it.

so, after all that typing - I guess I'm left with the question. Can they unlock it?

P.s I have a couple other questions too, if in the event they can.