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March 22, 2013
Unclaimed treasures
Where your lost possessions go to begin anew.
LAUREN KRAMER
Like most travelers, we’ve done it more than once. Slipped that camera, phone, laptop or DS into the seat pocket of the airplane and forgotten about it entirely – until after disembarking. Walking away from the aircraft, we’d get that hollow feeling that we’d lost a precious something and, with it, the realization it was likely irretrievable.
There’s a place where all such lost and unclaimed stuff eventually lands, and it’s at the foothills of the Appalachian mountains in the city of Scottsboro, Ala., population 14,770. Here, 115 staff at the Unclaimed Baggage store sift through 40,000 lost items every month, items purchased sight unseen from a list of unnamed domestic planes, trains and automobiles. More than half of those items are deemed unfit for retail and are passed on to organizations like the Salvation Army and Lion’s Club for redistribution. The rest end up on store shelves, where they’re perused and/or purchased by a million customers each year.
Like a department store, there are a variety of sections at Unclaimed Baggage. Clothing constitutes 70 percent of the floor space, and all of it is laundered and dry cleaned in the store’s processing facility before it lands on a hanger. Electronics and jewelry each occupy 10 percent of the store and the rest is an assortment of eyeglasses, handbags, shoes, books, artwork, formal wear and household items. Their price tags are anywhere from 20-to-80-percent-off retail prices.
Unclaimed Baggage had its start in 1970, when Doyle Owens, a part-time insurance salesman, was given an opportunity he couldn’t refuse. A friend who worked for a bus line in Washington, D.C., suggested that for a small sum he could buy unclaimed baggage long left behind by passengers. He rented a truck, picked up the baggage, repaired what was broken and laundered what was dirty. Then he started selling the items – and never looked back. By the mid-’70s, he’d negotiated contracts with a number of airlines, the names of which the company refuses to disclose, citing privacy agreements. Today, the store he established is a tourist destination in itself, encompassing a whopping 40,000 square feet and consuming a whole city block of Scottsboro. “It’s a great American story,” sighed Brenda Cantrell, company spokesperson.
First, the facts. Some 99 percent of lost items make it back to their owners, thanks to airlines’ concerted efforts over the course of 90 days after the item was lost. It’s only the remaining percentage that lands up at Unclaimed Baggage, and once it’s arrived, it’s considered fair game. Six days a week the store adds 5,000 to 7,000 new items to its retail floor.
The dynamics of the business have changed since the airlines started charging passengers for checked baggage, Cantrell reflected. “People are trying to carry more with them on the airplane,” she said, which also means they’re leaving more behind. What’s more, while the airlines are contractually responsible for trying to return lost checked baggage, items left on board by passengers are not their responsibility.
Some of the items are downright odd. A shrunken head. A mummified falcon. “This past week, we got in a full suit of armor, and it’s very heavy,” laughed Cantrell. “We’ve gotten taxidermied animals, exquisite diamonds – and we even got a live rattlesnake once!” The store has a museum where it displays some of the interesting and unusual items that have emerged from unclaimed baggage over the years. That’s where you’ll find an 18th-century violin, a Chinese opium scale and the dwarf-goblin gatekeeper from the 1986 David Bowie movie Labyrinth.
This is the place to go to gorge yourself on lost electronic items, including the latest and greatest iPhones, iPads and cameras. From diamond rings to surfboards, Unclaimed Baggage is a depot of lost, once-loved possessions long separated from their first owners. It’s a magnet for thrifty shoppers, who come from all over the country to give these items a second life. And it was probably a temporary resting place for my husband’s PalmPilot back in the ’90s and for my son’s much-loved first camera last December.
Here are a few tips on how to leave with what you arrived with:
• Avoid use of airplane seat pockets. Though some airlines are starting to make those pockets transparent in the hope of making it easier for passengers to remember the items they stash there, they remain the black hole of the airplane and the easiest place to forget your personal possessions.
• Stick business cards or labels with your name and address on anything you can’t afford to lose, including your phone, laptop, camera and iPad.
• Beware of the month of December, when travelers tend to lose more than in any other month, according to electronic data backup firm Mozy.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond, B.C. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
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