Found an ipad, how do I find owner?

Question

A customer left their Ipad in my restaurant but never returned for it. Would like to find the owner but it is locked.  Is there a way to track them down?

Answer 1

Varjak, where are you located? I am in Shanghai. I recently found a lost iPad, and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. You would give it to the police? You might as well throw it into a public trash bin.
I am appalled that Apple has the serial number and the registered iCloud login, but won't send the owner my email address. I used the Apple online support chat to ask why. "Did you receive the expected level of service?" No, zero out of 10 on this one. So I was escalated to a support manager, who gave me an extensive answer, first a lot of airtime about protecting the privacy of customers, then suggesting it is impossible to identify the real owner (in case it was resold), then a patently ridiculous argument, roughly that it is too hard a problem for any big company like Apple.
I detect that this is the problem: If Apple participates in even the simplest connection between lost and found, then they believe that by doing so, Apple may incur legal liability, in case any mistakes made later by the finder, that is, giving it to someone who was not in fact the current owner. I can think of 2 ways to work around this, not rocket science.
In short, Apple has the necessary information readily available, but doesn't care enough.