ATLANTA — It’s one of the busiest times of the year to travel by air and each year, airlines lose more than two million bags, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation.
Many of those bags end up about 2 ½ hours away from Atlanta in the foothill of Scottsboro, Alabama at a store called Unclaimed Baggage – the nation’s only retailer of lost luggage.
“How did you hear about Unclaimed Baggage?” Channel 2’s Karyn Greer asked shopper Holly Scudder-Chase.
“A mutual friend just sort of said, you know, there’s this place we should go check it out. And so last year, we came down for the day and came home with a car full of stuff,” Scudder-Chase.
While some items are ordinary, like pants, socks, and shoes. Others are actually extraordinary, expensive diamond jewelry, designer clothes, laptops, tablets, and more.
For Grace Nelson, she found her wedding dress.
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“I got a $5,000 dress for five bucks. Yeah. Yeah. My God. I’m always hunting for bargains,” Nelson said.
In the store, the aisles are filled with luggage.
All the bags were packed with care for that visit to see family friends and loved ones.
You never expect your bag will be lost forever and your items on the shelves for sale at Unclaimed Baggage.
But all of the items in the store don’t just end up here overnight.
“The airline industry standard is the bag has to be lost for a minimum of 90 days before it’s officially deemed as unclaimed,” said Sonni Hood, Sr. Manager of PR and Communications for Unclaimed Baggage.
Hood said they have contracts with all the major airlines to purchase their unclaimed luggage.
“During those 90 days, the baggage chasers are conducting an extensive baggage tracing process to try to reunite it with the original owner,” Hood said.
Hood said lost baggage is returned to its owners over 99.5% of the time. If it’s not, passengers are compensated for their lost belongings.
“Then Unclaimed Baggage steps in as a salvage partner to the airlines. So, we buy those suitcases sight unseen. Our team never knows what we’re going to find in those,” Hood said.
And it’s one of the largest employers in Jackson County, Alabama.
“It’s really important that Unclaimed Baggage is located here in Scottsboro. One, being a top tourist attraction that brings millions of people into the town,” Hood said.
And not every item goes up for sale in the store. One-third of them are donated to charities like prescription glasses to the Links Club International and suitcases for Children in Foster Care.
“These suitcases are hand-painted with bright images or uplifting messages of hope and then donated to foster children all around the nation,” Hood said.
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