When you sit back with time to kill in the airport, have you ever gazed at a passenger’s suitcase and wondered what mysterious contents lie behind the zipper?
Unclaimed Baggage, a retail store that offers lost luggage for sale in Alabama, is displaying the oddest artifacts in a museum in Scottsboro, Alabama. The Unclaimed Baggage Museum opened its doors on April 21, 2023, at the 509 West Willow Street location. There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony along with games, treats and cake to celebrate the first day of the grand opening.
The business has accumulated hundreds of objects in its 53 years of operations and they are ready to entertain their museum guests with strange unclaimed belongings. Among the displays, people will stumble upon over 100 items known as the “found treasures.”
Sonni Hood, Unclaimed Baggage’s Public Relations Manager, said that all of the exhibit objects are unpacked from suitcases that were left unclaimed. So people actually took the time to pack these odd items for their trips. Even though the items made it into the suitcase, the applicable use for these objects still remains a mystery.
Forgetful passengers took time travel very seriously and were prepared in case the airplane transforms into a time capsule. Museum visitors can expect to see historic objects such as “ancient Egyptian artifacts from 1500 B.C., primitive hair tools, plaques from antiquity, suits of armor, a violin from 1772, a 19th-century box camera and a Victorian-era hand fan.” Not exactly a thief’s dream collection from a pickpocketing episode but the objects can be fascinating to people who admire avant-garde artifacts.
There was also a Hermes necklace from the 1980s, a basketball signed by Michael Jordan and a Hoggle dwarf puppet mask.
“People are endlessly curious about the variety and wonder of items discovered in unclaimed bags,” said Bryan Owens, CEO of Unclaimed Baggage, in a statement. “We’ve seen it all. Our store is like an archeological dig, with unclaimed treasures telling stories about people and culture over time and from all parts of the world.”
Unclaimed Baggage was founded in 1970 by Owens’ father, Doyle Owens, who started the business after he bought a bulk of unclaimed bags from a travel company and sold it to the public.
“Airline passengers waiting for their bags upon arrival are almost certain to see them riding atop the bag carousel,” Unclaimed Baggage’s webpage states. “That’s because airlines use sophisticated tracking technology to reunite over 99.5% of bags with their owners right away.”
“If a bag is truly lost, airlines pay out a claim to the passenger,” the lost luggage retailer went on. “It’s only after an extensive three-month search that an unclaimed bag is deemed truly orphaned, a fate realized by less than 0.03% of all checked luggage! That’s where we come in.”
Unclaimed Baggage collaborated with museum archivists and specialists who assisted the store employees with research, exhibit designs and display installs for the collector items.