The Land Of Lost Luggage (Or Where To Buy Other People's Stuff On The Cheap)

I've got some heavy baggage that travels along with my luggage. It's not physical, but emotional--each year around this time my anxiety mounts as I plan trips requiring luggage logistics bigger than an overnight tote. Now's the season for me to pack my favorite things into a suitcase and wish it bon voyage at the airline check-in counter, only to be left wondering if I will ever see it again.

My fear, of course, is that the airlines will decide that my suitcase and I are no longer compatible. Will my next journey be that fateful one where I wait in vain at the end of luggage carousel? According to statistics, it's possible. Since 9/11, restrictions have tightened for carry-on bags, forcing more people to check their possessions. In November of 2007 the New York Times reported that close to five million travelers would be left empty-handed by year-end. The U.S. Bureau of Transportation cited a rate of nine mishandled bags per 1,000 for last December. Though approximately 98% of these strays were reunited with their owners eventually, that still leaves lots of errant luggage aimlessly drifting around the globe.

So I'm worried that someday soon this dreaded occurrence will happen to me. But in the spirit of actually being proactive about my fears instead of consumed by them, I've created a plan. I've decided to compulsively mark my suitcase both inside and out with multiple, waterproofed, sticky identification tags that should stand up to anything short of a natural disaster. If that still doesn't achieve my desired delivery results, I have discovered one last resort: The Land of Lost Luggage.

Back in 1970 an enterprising young visionary named Doyle Owens had a dream of finding new owners for the old stuff inside of hopelessly waylaid luggage. Doyle borrowed $300 and a pickup truck and went off to buy his first load of unclaimed bags from a bus line in Washington, D.C. He thought it would take a few days to empty his haul; instead, he sold out the first night-- and so "The Land of Lost Luggage" was born. Since then the business, officially know as the Unclaimed Baggage Center, has grown into a 40,000 square foot retail playground in Scottsboro, Alabama that welcomes over 7,000 new items daily.

The UBC never knows what's inside the suitcases they buy, and that can make for some surprising finds. Everything from major jewels to a live rattlesnake has been found as they unzip their purchases. About a third of the unpacked items are thrown away, a third gets donated to charity and the remainder is laundered or dry-cleaned then stocked in the store, which is rumored to offer quite an impressive assortment of new and used designer clothes, cameras, electronics, jewelry, sporting goods and more. Once, perhaps, these fine items used to be yours.

All found in UBC lost luggage: Armor, a 40.95 carat emerald, a live rattlesnake, a Barbie with a roll of $500 bills hidden in her head.

With so many products moving through the facility daily and over one million bargain shoppers a year hunting for loot at deeply discounted prices, I suppose my last resort plan of reuniting with my stuff and buying it back could be a bit far-fetched--but who knows what else might be available? So this holiday season, if my luggage really does go missing, you will know where to find me: traveling to Alabama, by car, to see if you, perhaps, might have lost anything nice too.

Comments

[harriettubman]

I don't pack valuables in suitcases but I have had lost luggage. I contacted the airline forever and they didn't know where my luggage was. However, when I made a claim of several thousand dollars, 3 months later I mysteriously received a call from the airport. When I got there my luggage sat all alone. Hmmmm.

[kellygrrrl]

having lost many bags over the years with some valuables that I would really like to have back, this article just made me feel angry.

[gwhizz]

Agreed. I saw something on TV about this place and they showed some of the stuff. One thing that for some reason stands out in my mind was a full Marching Band uniform and the trumpet--not sure if they originally went together or were "lost" separately but PULEEZE. Someone HAD to have reported that stuff missing! How hard would it be to find the school really!
It was just sad.

My son lost his wallet on a flight a while ago--it fell out of his pocket we think--and we reported it to the airline expecting never to see it again. Wrong. It took several months but one day he received a priority mail pkg and there it was. With everything he remembers having in it including credit cards.

[TrooAmerican]

that photo caption says "All found in UBC lost luggage: Armor, a 40.95 carat emerald, a live rattlesnake, a Barbie with a roll of $500 bills hidden in her head."

The us has not printed $500 bills for a long long time, and pulled them out of circulation. maybe they meant 5 $100 bills.
how did they know money was in her head, do they always decapitate dolls in lost luggage?

[onalimb]

Okay - I am sure some people have some form of ID or address on or in their suitcases. Does this company send people their luggage if phone #, address etc is inside the case?
Seems unfair to travelers - kind of has a bad karma feel to it.

[sashasalazar]

From their website:
By the time luggage reaches us, every effort has been made by the airlines to find the rightful owners. Usually the bags have no identification on (or in) them. The airlines use clues they find in the luggage, such as an itinerary or other personal documents, to try to find the owners. This effort by the airlines to return the goods results in a three to four month lag before we receive the baggage.

That means the baggage that arrives at Unclaimed Baggage is anonymous and up to 120 days past the travel date. And of course, many items we receive are unmarked belongings left behind in overhead bins or seat pockets. Further, the volume of products coming through our store on a daily basis - much of it bought by shoppers within hours of reaching the sales floor would make it a virtual impossibility to track any particular item.

[PatA]

Yeah, does all unclaimed luggage go to this one man? Seems unfair to me.

[jdw1981]

So does this guy have some kind of monopoly on unclaimed baggage (which would seem illegal), or can anyone get in on this?

[katielady]

hi jdw, I will be this guy made a crazy deal with the airlines. He has the facilities, opens up the bags, sorts them then sells the stuff... and gives the airlines a portion... how does that sound?

[jdw1981]

Sounds like an illegal monopoly.