Lollipop lock out for Galaxy s5?

Coincidentally or not, I apparently forgot my screen lock pin after upgrading to Lollipop the night before. Per Verizon, there's no fix for people who forget their PIN - all lock outs are treated the same, as if the device was stolen. So according to Verizon, my only choice is to remotely wipe it (to prevent the imaginary thief from accessing my data) then do a factory reset. Side note - This makes sense to me, but then I don't work for Verizon: I am the registered owner of the phone with this serial number, so why can't I bring said phone and my state-issued identification to a Verizon store and have them reset it for me? I was told that's not possible.

To answer the obvious questions:

The phone was registered with Google when first set up, but there's no way to unlock it from my PC.

I've tried a thousand times but have never seen any sort of "forgot PIN?" button showing after 5 attempts, but it does make me wait 30 seconds before trying again. (Two friends have the exact same phone & service provider, and they see that button after 5 tries, then if they don't know the alternate PIN it lets them unlock the phone using their Google log-in name & password).

After a few days I switched service back to my Droid 4, hoping it might cause the disabled Galaxy's screen to unlock (it didn't).

I've been able to recover all my pictures & video and removed the SD card, but if I have to do a factory reset I'll lose my up-to-date contacts and all my texts and phone logs (no way to back those up now - all apps require the phone be unlocked).