SCOTTSBORO, Ala. (WAFF/Gray News) - Unclaimed luggages left at airports can sometimes be like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get.
A retail store in Alabama, appropriately named Unclaimed Baggage, has operated since it opened in 1970. The store takes lost or forgotten luggage from major airlines and sells or donates the luggage contents to the Scottsboro community.
Over the years, the store has come across some unique and downright bizarre findings over the years. Now, Unclaimed Baggage will showcase many of its treasures in a new museum.
Sonni Hood, the community involvement manager for the Unclaimed Baggage, said in an interview with WAFF the exhibit will feature over 100 pieces of history that have found their way to the store.
“The most common question we ever get is, ‘What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found in lost bags?’ That really sparked the idea to put together the Unclaimed Baggage Museum,” she said.
Each of the 100 items will be displayed along with the story of how the item came to be, and how it ended up in the museum.
“We’ll be having full suits of armor, shrunken heads, hear the story of how we found a live rattlesnake in a bag, you name it, we have over one hundred items on display to tell the story of things found in lost bags,” Hood said.
Hood said she hopes the exhibit will encourage more people to pay a visit to Scottsboro’s most popular tourist attraction, and that it will add to the Unclaimed Baggage experience.
“We certainly hope that this encourages more traffic, it just adds an extra level of fun,” she said. “I mean so many of these items have traveled to us from all over the world throughout multiple centuries even, so it’s just a great way to discover more about these items.”
The grand opening for the brand-new exhibit is set for April 21 at 11 a.m.
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