Found a phone at work and waited two months, can I keep it?

I found an iPhone at my work and followed the general procedure of logging it in via paper work and storing it in a locked safe room. The policy, or law from what I'm told, is we must wait 30 days for it to be claimed or we can no longer hold on to it. After 30 days, I tried contacting the owner and service provider (AT&T) and was left at a dead end. I powered on the device and realized the find my iphone was active, so I left it on for a week but no one has come to my location or even tried contacting me.

At this point, am I able to keep it since I didn't steal it and I went through all the possible actions to contact / let the owner contact me?

You're not at a dead end because that phone is most certainly registered with Apple and Apple could probably locate the owner for you (if you weren't so keen to give up and claim the phone for yourself).

In my state, it is illegal to keep anything you find valued more than 25 dollars. Not sure about your jurisdiction, you didn't mention it. Company policy does not circumvent the law.

You certainly are not at a dead end, because Apple has the owner's info.

Yes, contact Apple, and then you can say you did everything possible. Generally speaking, once phones are activated in someone's name and account, they can't be used by anyone else without a formal agreed upon change.

Sure do it

Each iPhone has it's own unique serial number which is registered with the owner's name. You need to contact Apple and tell them you tried to find the owner of the phone unsuccessfully and you're now turning the phone over to them to hopefully, find the owner.

The way it generally works is that you turn it over to the police. If the police are unable to find the owner or if the owner doesn't speak up for X days, then it gets turned back over to you and you get to keep it.

Whether you can convince the phone company or apple that it's your phone is a different matter though.

You will be seen as stealing the phone. You must give it to a 3rd party.

The laws vary in different places, but the general rule is that you can't keep property that isn't yours unless you have permission of the owners. Otherwise it is a criminal theft. If you follow the rules of your jurisdiction (not just those of your employer), then it MIGHT be declared "abandoned" at some point (where the owner can't be found), and you might be given the first chance to have it, or it gets auctioned off to jobbers.

Whether or not you eventually "own" the device is also separate from whether you can ever get the technical right to use it on any network, based upon its Electronic Serial Number having been logged as "lost or stolen".

The only problem is that it may have been stolen in the first place.
If you have followed all the procedures your police have told you then fine.
But you may still have to address the ownership later.
Make sure you have everything you have done IN WRITING and who you contacted at the local police station.
It will come in handy when have to go to court.