After a long flight, the last thing anyone wants is for their suitcase to never show up on the carousel.
But each year, millions of bags go missing, including 33.4million that were mishandled (delayed, damaged, or lost) in 2024.
While most bags are eventually reclaimed within 90 days, around seven per cent of mishandled bags are never reunited with owners.
For Brits travelling to the US over the festive season, if you’re unlucky enough to lose your suitcase and miss the reclaim cut-off there is a good chance your luggage will be sent to this one-of-a-kind shop.
In Scottsboro, Alabama, there is the USA’s only lost luggage retailer, called Unclaimed Baggage.
If you’re imagining the Junk Lady from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, you’re not far off.
In fact, after filming Labyrinth, the four-foot-tall goblin puppet Hoggle was lost during shipping and made its way to Scottsboro.
The Jim Henson Company allowed the store to keep the puppet, which is now on display at the on-site Museum of Found Treasures.
While most bags are eventually reclaimed within 90 days, around seven per cent of mishandled bags are never reunited with owners
In Scottsboro, Alabama, there is the nation’s only lost luggage retailer, called Unclaimed Baggage
The original four-foot-tall goblin puppet Hoggle from the 1986 film Labyrinth is on display at the Museum of Found Treasures inside Unclaimed Baggage
The store began in 1970 when Doyle Owens used a borrowed pickup truck and a $300 (£224) loan to buy his first load of unclaimed luggage from Trailways Bus Line in Washington, D.C.
Initially, the store was only open two days a week, but it became so popular after Doyle landed a contract with Eastern Airlines that the business opened full-time.
In 1981, the store launched its first ski sale, which has become an annual tradition on the first Saturday in November that draws customers camping out in the parking lot to get first in line.
By 1995, Doyle’s son Bryan and his wife Sharon took over the business and expanded the store to cover more than a city block, adding a café and a Museum of Found Treasures which opened in 2023.
The café called Cups Café offers visitors menu options of sandwiches, salads, coffees and sweet treats.
At the time of the store’s 50th anniversary in 2020, they opened up an online store but had to delay their road tour.
In 2022, the business took its show on the road and travelled across all 50 states to show off its collection of unusual finds and the Found Treasures museum opened in 2023.
Around 7,000 items are added to the store each day, with the merchandise often heavily discounted
Items listed on the website include designer clothes, jackets, handbags, accessories, home goods, sporting goods and electronics
Some of the unusual items that have been found include bear pelt packed in salt, an Egyptian burial mask, a live rattlesnake and human shrunken heads (pictured)
Once the bags end up in the store, it gets sorted into three categories by employees: resell, repurpose or recycle.
Some of the unusual items that have been found include bear pelt packed in salt, an Egyptian burial mask, a live rattlesnake and human shrunken heads.
Annually, more than a million people visit the shop and 7,000 items are added each day.
The shop has a large social media following with more than 182K followers on Instagram, where they share some of the items they have on sale.
About one third of items get sold, and prices are determined by estimated retail value and conditions.
If an item is repurposed, it gets donated to communities around the world. If items need to be thrown out, they make sure all personal information is shredded and items are recycled properly.
Items listed on the website include designer clothes, jackets, handbags, accessories, home goods, sporting goods and electronics.
In the store’s history, they have found three Birkin bags and a men’s platinum presidential Rolex watch, which sold for $32,000 (£23,907).
Annually, more than a million people visit the shop and 7,000 items are added each day.
In the UK, London Heathrow Airport holds onto lost property for three months from the date it was found or handed in and can charge you up to £25 to retrieve misplaced items.
However, cases left unclaimed are sometimes given to auction houses which then sell off the bags (and all their contents) to the highest bidder.
There are many different auction houses that sell lost luggage and each one does things differently.
Some auction houses will let you see what is inside the case before you purchase it, whereas others will just have a description, for example, ‘women’s clothing’.
Prices can vary between £10 and £80, depending on whether the cases are full or empty.
