They send your bags packing.
When passengers lose luggage and never retrieve it, their suitcases don’t end up in a landfill or some forgotten storage unit — the bags are actually sold.
According to Vice, 2.1 million passengers take off on an estimated 45,000 flights per day.
While most of their luggage finds its way back to its original owner, airlines lose an astonishing 2 million bags every year, NPR reported.
Those unclaimed suitcases, however, are not just lost in the ether — instead, they’re put up for sale at Unclaimed Baggage, a Scottsboro, Alabama, vendor that hawks around 7,000 items from airlines, trains, buses and other means of public transportation and hospitality business.
The company, whose facility takes up a full city block, buys and resells the misfit items after airlines fail to return the luggage to owners.
Typically, the airline companies will attempt to reunite passengers and their luggage and will reimburse them if unsuccessful.
As a result, the hodge-podge storefront and online retailer boasts a miscellaneous collection, from designer goods like Louis Vuitton pouchettes and Chanel tweed blazers to bizarre belongings like fishing rods, bobbleheads and more.
There are also AirPods galore, luxe jewelry and hair tools aplenty.
“It’s like Christmas every day – we never know what we’ll find,” owner Bryan Owens recently told CNN. “I look at it like an archaeological dig.”
According to Vice, only around one-third of the items Unclaimed Baggage receives are put up for sale, while another third is donated to charity. The final third includes damaged or otherwise unsellable items that are either trashed or recycled.
The items sold, however, are offered at a bargain, which is part of the allure for Andolyn Parrish, 28, who told CNN about her lavish finds, such as a Louis Vuitton duffel bag that is typically thousands of dollars but she snagged for just $350.
“Something that I could never afford at retail prices, but I was able to pick it up here,” she told the outlet.
According to spokesperson Sonni Hood, the priciest item ever sold was a Rolex watch, which retailed at $64,000 full-price but was sold at a 50% discount from their store.
“When I look around here, I see a store full of found things, not lost things — items given a second chance,” Hood told CNN.
“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?”
