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SCOTTSBORO Ala
December 1, 2024

Vee Aronds gazed at her reflection in the mirror as she tried on a satin-and-lace wedding dress. She patted the fitted bodice and twirled to see the length of the train.

Surrounded by racks of formal gowns, Aronds was on a mission to uncover hidden treasures at the sprawling Unclaimed Baggage store, which describes itself as the nation’s only seller of items from lost luggage.

Millions of clothing items, pieces of jewelry, electronics and other abandoned belongings end up each year at this singular store in northeastern Alabama.

As she admired the flowing white dress from different angles, Aronds mused about its journey from an airport carousel to the store.

Who had owned it, she wondered? Did the suitcase get lost on the way to the wedding — or after? Would the owner recognize her intricate dress if she saw it in the store?

Inside the 50,000 square-foot space, rows of clothes, shoes, books, electronics and other inventory from lost suitcases stretch as far as the eye can see. On this day they included a mix of unique items – left-handed kitchen shears – and whimsical ones, such as a papier-maché Tinker Bell from Disney’s “Peter Pan” dangling from the ceiling.

Airlines typically spent three to four months trying to reunite lost suitcases with their owners. If they can’t, they sell the bags to Unclaimed Baggage, which separates items into batches to be sold, thrown away or donated to charity, said Bryan Owens, the store’s owner. Bargain hunters then scoop up the store’s merchandise at discount prices.

Aronds, 55, and her partner drove to Scottsboro from Ooltewah, Tennessee, one day last week. It was her first visit to the store, and she’d envisioned a wonderland of partially opened bags bursting with clothes, accessories and untold secrets.

“I was prepared to dig through suitcases,” she said. “But now that I’m here, I prefer this setup — it’s so much easier to find things.”

Her partner, Frederick Stewart, 75, watched from a bench as Aronds tossed a black gown with dark sequins into her shopping cart, joining a growing pile that included several multicolored kaftans.

She said she loved the wedding dress. But she couldn’t bring herself to buy it. Not just yet.

The store, which occupies a city block in Scottsboro, attracts tourists from all over the world.

The Unclaimed Baggage store launched in 1970. Owens’ father, Doyle Owens, started it after a friend who worked for Trailways bus service told him he had mountains of unclaimed luggage and didn’t know what to do with it.

“My dad grew up somewhat in a retail business and he thought, ‘I can help you with that,’” Bryan Owens said.

The elder Owens borrowed $300 and a 1965 Chevy pickup truck and drove to Washington, D.C. to collect the suitcases. The family put ads in a Scottsboro newspaper announcing they were selling items from unclaimed baggage. People showed up in such large numbers that the items regularly sold out.

As business boomed, Doyle Owens quit his job in the insurance industry and focused on his new venture.

Bryan Owens bought the store from his parents in 1995. His father died two decades later, but not before he got a chance to see the store expand its reach beyond this Alabama city of 16,000 people.

In the 54 years since it started, Unclaimed Baggage has gone international, with online purchases that ship to customers overseas. It’s become one of the area’s main tourist attractions and attracts more than 1 million visitors annually, Owens said.

The vast majority of the store’s inventory is from luggage lost during air travel, although the store receives some unclaimed bags from trains and buses. Unclaimed Baggage also sells items left in seat pockets, overhead bins and in hand luggage, said Sonni Hood, the store’s spokesperson.

Among the quirkier items discovered in luggage last year: a funeral casket key, a suitcase packed with wigs, a jar full of shark teeth and two live rat snakes stashed in a duffel bag. The store released the non-venomous reptiles into the wild.

Some of the more unusual items found in luggage over the decades are showcased in a small museum inside the store. They include a suit of armor, a set of bagpipes, a Gucci bag filled with Egyptian historical artifacts and a puppet — of Hoggle, a grumpy dwarf — used in the 1986 fantasy movie “Labyrinth.”

One lost bag contained a custom Nikon camera designed for the space shuttle. Turns out, someone from NASA had lost it during transit. The store turned it over to the space agency, Owens said.

“It’s like Christmas every day – we never know what we’ll find,” he said. “I look at it like an archaeological dig.”

Airlines sell bags to the store after they’ve exhausted efforts to match them with their owners

In 2023, airlines lost an average of 6.9 bags per 1,000 passengers. More than 99.5% of suitcases are eventually reunited with their owners, but the small fraction of lost bags adds up, Hood said. In August 2024 alone, for example, federal statistics show airlines mishandled more than 260,000 bags in the US.

Airlines typically spend three to four months trying to match the unclaimed bags with their owners before selling them to the store. Some bags go unclaimed because they have no identifying information.

By the time the bags end up at the store, the airlines have already compensated the owners, per federal regulations, up to $3,800 per passenger for a lost bag on a domestic flight, Hood said.

The store buys each bag as is, without taking inventory of its contents. The bags are taken to a warehouse, where their items are sorted and cleaned.

Used undergarments are not sold; only new ones that still have price tags on them, Hood said. Tech experts remove personal data from electronic devices and test them to ensure they work.

About 7,000 new items arrive at the store each day, Hood said.

CNN reached out to a handful of US-based airlines with questions about how their process works. Two — United Airlines and Southwest — confirmed that they send lost suitcases to the facility in Alabama after they’ve exhausted options to reunite them with their owners.

United said it sends suitcases after 90 days, while Southwest does so after 120 days. Other domestic airlines contacted by CNN did not respond.

Over the years, items recovered from lost suitcases have reflected changing cultural trends. During the store’s infancy, travelers often left their Walkmans – portable music players – on planes, along with cassettes by such ‘70s artists as Joni Mitchell. Today, travelers leave AirPods, phones and tablets, along with T-shirts and other merchandise from Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

“It’s a snapshot of what’s going on with travelers, and a slice of society in general,” Owens said.

The most frequently found items include sneakers, blouses and blue jeans – although more formal clothing turns up as well. Filmmaker Daniel Scheinert, who won an Oscar last year for co-directing “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” famously delivered his acceptance speech in a tuxedo purchased from the Unclaimed Baggage store.

Items in the store are priced at between 20% to 80% off retail prices, Hood said. But that doesn’t mean they sell cheap junk, she said.

“We are not a thrift store. Thrift stores are full of things that people no longer want. Our store is full of things that people loved so much, they packed them to take on vacation. So it’s usually going to be nicer items.”

Wade Dubose, 59, is a self-proclaimed super shopper who goes to the store several times a day to hunt for bargains.

“It’s like going on an adventure — you never know what you’re gonna get,” he said.

On a recent visit, he scattered his planned purchases on the floor around him. They included a pair of Nikon binoculars, tailgating fans, hand warmers and a golf cart cover.

As an entrepreneur who purchases items and resells them, Dubose relies on the store for his inventory. “I buy anything, as long as it’s a deal,” he said.

The store once sold a Rolex watch for $32,000

On a recent trip, she pushed a shopping cart overflowing with clothes. At the top was a silver $10 jacket that she said would spruce up her work outfits.

One of Parrish’s most expensive purchases was a vintage Louis Vuitton duffel that cost her $350 but retails for thousands of dollars.

“Something that I could never afford at retail prices, but I was able to pick it up here,” she said.

Hood, the store’s spokesperson, said their most expensive item ever was a platinum Rolex watch that retailed for $64,000 but was sold at the store for half that. The store’s current top-ticket item is a solitaire diamond ring priced at $19,491.

“When I look around here, I see a store full of found things, not lost things — items given a second chance,” said Hood, who started working at the store in high school as a fitting room helper.

“Through loss, there’s a chance for hope and redemption. Through our donations, we transform lives. Loss in any way is devastating. But how incredible is it to transform that into something positive for others?”

The store rarely reunites people with their lost items.

Owens and Hood recalled only one known case a few years ago, when a shopper from Atlanta attended the store’s annual November ski sale, which draws people from all over the nation. Lines wrap around the building, and some customers pitch tents in the parking lot overnight to secure a spot at the front.

The man bought ski boots that day for his girlfriend. When he got home, they discovered her name engraved in the boots and realized they were the same pair she’d lost during a trip. The airlines had already compensated her for the lost luggage.

“They ended up in our store, and they came full circle back to her,” Owens said.

The store has a procedure for destroying documents, IDs, prescriptions and other sensitive information found in suitcases. Eyeglasses are donated to the local Lions Club.

“We are not in the business of reunification,” Hood said. “We are in the business of giving these items a second life.”

The store’s customers are happy to help with that effort. Aronds left the store last week with a bag of clothes — minus the wedding dress.

“He hasn’t proposed, so why should I get it?” she said with a laugh. “Come on, a man has to ask first.”

Stewart chuckled. “I’m going to marry this woman one day,” he said.

If he does, Aronds plans to give a wedding dress from the store another walk down the aisle.

CNN