Contents of unclaimed luggage

In a time of international travel, suitcases of clothes, toiletries and souvenirs could end up anywhere, perhaps Turkey, Denver or even Addis Ababa.

But even though most lost airline luggage is successfully returned to its owner, the remainder, more often than not, finds its way to a far more improbable location — a small town in Alabama.

Hidden in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Scottsboro is the location of Unclaimed Baggage Center, a large warehouse mall where items that cannot be returned back to their owner are sold off at discount prices.

Unclaimedbaggage.com
“Airlines spend a lot of time tracking down the owners of lost luggage, they have software and staff assigned to it,” the Center’s Brenda Cantrell told CNN.

“This is not only because they have to reimburse customers for the lost baggage, but because there is a huge amount of goodwill involved.”

On average, an airline hangs on to baggage for 90 days while it tries to locate the owners.

After 100 days they will usually pay passengers for their loss. Despite this attempt, about one million items a year arrive in Scottsboro, ranging from the mundane — clothing, luggage and cameras — to the strange.

Among the strangest finds have been a case containing a full suit of armor, a Jim Henson puppet, a trunk of Egyptian artifacts including a mummified eagle, a rare 1770 violin, a sparkling 5.8 carat solitaire diamond ring and an original painting valued at $20,000.

Clothing, jewelry, digital cameras and luggage round out the list of big sellers at the Unclaimed Baggage Center, which was founded by Bryan Owens, a Scotsboro native who helped create airline baggage-tracking software.

A handful of merchandise is simply given away. The Center has donated many crutches war veterans organizations, clothes to the poor and baby strollers to a teen pregnancy center.

While many customers walk away with a steal, some score more than they bargained for.

“One man from Georgia was going through and bought a pair of ski boots for $35 for his wife to replace ones she had lost on an airline and been reimbursed for,” said Cantrell.

“He had no clue until he arrived home that these actually were in fact his wife’s lost boots — they still contained her initials inside.”

Costly travel mistakes

lost airline luggage