The crowd waited with excitement as the doors opened. Then they rushed in to be the first to grab a $45 iPad, a pair of Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses for $60, a brand new pair of Adidas sneakers for $40, or a stunning, 18K gold chain necklace for only $2,000. One woman found a Gucci handbag for only $125; another, the wedding dress of her dreams at a steep discount.
Families and bargain-hunters alike sorted through the racks of clothes, electronics, and housewares — and squealed with the thrill of discovery of sports equipment, artwork, books, health and beauty products, and more, all at 20 to 80 percent off the retail price. To find out what these new winter coats, perfect ski boots, and cases of sparkling jewelry were doing here, I’d need to look back several decades.
In the 1960s, Doyle Owens was an insurance salesman living with his family in Alabama. As a hobby, Owens was a ham radio operator. One day over the radio, he heard that the Trailways bus company was having problems getting rid of items left behind on their fleet of buses. He imagined all the forlorn luggage collecting dust in some run-down, unused office space, and he saw an opportunity. Borrowing $300, he took his dad’s pickup truck and traveled to Washington D.C. for his first load, selling the detritus garage-sale style. Not only did he sell out his first day, but a bigger idea was born.
After doing some research, Owens realized that it was not only buses that ended up with mountains of personal items inadvertently left behind, abandoned, or lost. Planes, airports, hotels, casinos, and even theme parks — anywhere a large gathering of people had assembled — had the same issue. As a result, the businesses were saddled with the expense and time-consuming task of reuniting the lost items with their owners, running extensive lost-and-found operations. Even after their best efforts, a certain number of unclaimed items always remained, stubbornly, by taking up space and using valuable resources.
Confident that these castaways still had value, Owens envisioned a sustainable solution to this problem. In 1970, Unclaimed Baggage was born.
Owens’ first airline contract was with the now-defunct Eastern Airlines in 1973. Today, more than 50 years later, Unclaimed Baggage has contracts with all major airlines as well as other companies within the travel, transportation, and hospitality industry. Combined, they send thousands of pounds of items a month to Unclaimed Baggage located in Scottsboro, Alabama. One of the most popular tourist attractions in Alabama, attracting a million people a year from over 40 different countries, the 50,000-square-foot facility includes a store, a processing plant, and an accompanying museum. Unclaimed Baggage employs over 250 people, making it one of the largest employers in Jackson County. And in 2020, Unclaimed Baggage expanded their reach to new customers by creating an online store to attract bargain shoppers everywhere.
As you stroll the aisles, you wonder: Why would someone leave a wedding ring, a computer, or a $10,000 Rolex watch behind? People in a hurry often realize too late they left their luggage and are unable to return to pick it up. Or they file a claim, get reimbursed, and go on with life. Maybe someone forgot to pack an item in a hotel room and missed the window of time the hotel set to pick it up. These are just a few of hundreds of reasons an item would wind up at Unclaimed Baggage.
Frankly, trying to get something back can be a hassle. I remember the time I left a blue cashmere scarf under my seat in the plane. By the time I realized it, I was too worn out from traveling to go to the airport desk, fill out a form, or go to lost & found. Instead, I shrugged my shoulders and thought, “It’s only a scarf!”
Owens, however, believed that there was a deeper meaning in a forgotten item. In fact, he saw a Biblical connection with loss that set the overall tone for his business.
“To redeem the lost, unclaimed, and rejected for the Glory of God,” is Unclaimed Baggage’s mission statement according to Sonni Hood, Unclaimed Baggage’s senior manager of public relations and communications. Redemption is a huge part of their story. “We at Unclaimed Baggage believe that luggage isn’t ‘lost,’” she explained to me. “We look at it instead as ‘found.’ Everything is worthy of a new life, which is what Unclaimed Baggage gives to the products they sell.”
Hood acknowledges that Unclaimed Baggage is a for-profit company. “But the heart of what we do traces back to Christ. What do we find when we lose? We can experience restoration when we experience loss. Beauty from ashes.” Plus, she said, who doesn’t love a treasure hunt?
The company has a very active philanthropy arm that closely follows their restoration philosophy. Their foundation, Reclaimed for Good, is involved with many organizations all over the world to “repurpose and distribute items to those in need.”
Reclaimed for Good supplies “hundreds of thousands” of unclaimed eyeglasses to the local Lions Club to redistribute to those in need. They also provide luggage for children in foster care that is hand painted by volunteers. Having bright, personalized luggage can spare children the indignity of carrying around their items from home to home in plastic garbage bags. The foundation also donates items to the Salvation Army and to local, national, and global community clothing closets. In fact, according to Hood, “a third of what comes into Unclaimed Baggage is sold, a third is recycled, and a third is donated.” On average, for every item sold, another is donated, fulfilling Owens desire for his business to be both a mission and a blessing.
Unclaimed Baggage is now owned by Doyle Owens’ son, Bryan Owens, and his wife Sharon. They have carried on his father’s vision, helping businesses with a lost and found problem, and maintaining their mission to reduce waste and in the process upcycle and repurpose items.
I’m giving myself a Christmas gift this year: a new blue scarf I bought at Unclaimed Baggage. It’s even more beautiful than my original one, and I’m happy to be able to give it a new home. More importantly, I’m excited to celebrate Christmas, a day that reminds us all what a gift we are given through the birth of Jesus Christ.
And I wonder if the scarf I once left in the plane ever found its way to Unclaimed Baggage. Maybe it’s wrapped around the shoulders of someone who found it as soft and cozy as I did. Maybe the blue color matches their eyes perfectly. For all I know, they might love it even more than I did. I hope so.
Loss does not discriminate, no matter who you are or where you’re from. But through even the small losses, there is hope and there is redemption. For the owners of Unclaimed Baggage, this is as true for us as it is for the items they save. Where we were once lost, we were given new life, too.
