Im hoping somone here knows a bit about cell phones, i bought a phone from my friend that happened to be reported stolen or missing, so they could not activate it when i went in. but ive been doing some light reading and im not sure if i read it correctly but there seems to be people who can
"unblock" the ESN (electronic seriel number) so the phone is clean and can be used by me. can anyone verify this?

Elaborate on those? Has it been reported stolen or reported missing? You can do a simple search and should be able to find these out. Went in where? Technically speaking you wouldn't actually be able to "unblock" a serial number as it's been linked to someones account. Get your money back.