Verizon & suspected blacklisted phone

Hey TW - I know there is a lot of smart folks here so here is my situation -

In April my Motorola Razr HD screen was smashed. Square Trade warranty authorized me to get it fixed by local vendor.
In the meantime phone stopped working so S.T. gave me a full refund to buy a new phone.
The repair shop sold me a new (ha) Razr HD Maxx with my warranty $.
I went to Verizon store (a company owned one). Customer Svc Rep put new sim card & activated it.
It worked for about 8 hrs then stopped.
Went back to Verizon & they said the phone was blacklisted go back to store where phone came from.
The seller insisted the phone was not stolen so I went to the police.
Yesterday the police gave me the phone back saying the phone is not stolen.
Verizon still insists the phone is blacklisted.
So is this a brick what gives?
Verizon wants me to use an upgrade I have on another line to replace the phone.
Also during the time, the phone in question on my account was taken out of suspension
but the tech who helped me after I got the phone back gives conflicting info about the sim card.
I do not know what to do. I hate this.
If it is stolen I want to get it back to the owner but the police say they have completed their investigation?
I guess I can try to go back to the vendor who sold it.
What a waste of time just trying to do the right thing.
Oh Verizon said also there is no way to get it back to the original owner do to being 4G.
I know nothing about sim cards or ESN or whatever.

 

What a cluster F

Good luck figuring it all out!

 

That about sums it up!
Charlie Foxtrot!!!