MYSTERIOUS AMERICA

UNCLAIMED BAGGAGE CENTER 509 W WILLOW STREET, SCOTTSBORO, AL 35768

256-259-1525 • WWW.UNCLAIMEDBAGGAGE.COM

If you have traveled by air there is always that slight bit of tension when you get to the baggage carousel. In all the years I have been traveling by jet aircraft we have only had a few issues and one or two wins. A win for me is when my Ogio bag, carrying all of my gear, comes out of the chute in the rst round of luggage. Once it was the rst bag out. Yes!

But, on occasion, the Ogio bag has not rolled up, out, and onto the carousel. When that happens, you have that sinking feeling in your gut when you look around and realize you are the only passenger from your ight still standing at the carousel. Head hung low you go through the Lost Luggage Stages of Grief - shock and denial, depression, and then you begin working through it; which involves nding the Lost Luggage counter and begin the paperwork.

You wonder where your luggage really is? Perhaps it has gone to the Lost Sock Dimension?

I have had luggage lost a few times and each time the luggage was hand-delivered to our doorstep the next day and once a few days later. I have only had one bag simply disappear – luckily it was an empty bag that I had picked up at a Yamaha intro and United eventually paid me for the loss. In truth airline passengers waiting for their bags upon arrival are almost certain to see them riding atop the bag carousel. 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. 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 this month’s Mysterious America comes in… The Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama.

Yes, there is such a place.

I visited there a few months back, as we had to see it for ourselves. Indeed, there it was. A mammoth building, plus another, and walking in it was just a tad on the odd, quirky, and unusual side of life.

Think of it as the largest Good Will, second-hand thrift shop you will ever see.

You might wonder how all this happens and how everything eventually winds up in a small town in Alabama.

Back in 1970 entrepreneur, Doyle Owens was struck with an idea. Using a borrowed pickup truck and a $300 loan, he headed up to Washington D.C. and bought his rst load of unclaimed baggage from Trailways Bus Line. He then sold the contents on card tables in an old rented house - the venture was an instant success! With his family’s blessing, he left his full-time insurance job, and Unclaimed Baggage Center was born.

Today Unclaimed Baggage has purchasing agreements for unclaimed items with all domestic airlines and other travel and transportation companies. With ve decades of experience processing large volumes of one-of-a-kind items, they maximize each item’s potential for a second life.

Only about one third of all unclaimed items they receive can be sold. After these items go through the rigorous readiness process, they determine selling prices based on estimated retail values and conditions. They process approximately 7,000 unique, heavily discounted items each day for their sales oor, where they are discovered and “reclaimed” by new owners.

Walking inside we saw several huge rooms with everything you can imagine. But, I’ll get right back to all that.

What was really fun was to see some of the quirky and more peculiar luggage and items that have passed through the doors, as along the walls they have many of the really strange items on display. Great old bicycles, Sam the Unclaimed baggage Ram, Great Highland Bagpipes from Scotland (how do you lose your pipes, Laddie?) and even Donny & Marie Osmond’s costumes from a long-ago tour.

Other great nds include an aluminized re suit, a camera from the Space Shuttle, an Egyptian burial mask, a live rattlesnake, a shrunken head, a xylophone from a Neil Diamond tour, and even Hoggle from the movie Labyrinth that

starred David Bowie (he was awesome in this!).

We spent a good hour in there walking the many aisles full of electronics, lots of books and rack and racks of perfectly good clothes.

In truth, if you come to the Unclaimed Baggage Center with the idea to nd and buy you, most likely, will not be disappointed.

Even if you don’t buy anything the place is truly fascinating and certainly part of this Mysterious America. O’Life Out! ,