Have you ever been curious about what’s inside a fellow passenger’s suitcase? The latest “Found Report” from Unclaimed Baggage is offering us a glimpse. They’re the company that has contracts with domestic airlines to buy bags owners don’t pick up after a 90-day search and then they donate, recycle or sell those items at their retail store in Scottsboro, Alabama.
- Their annual “Found Report” reveals the most common, unusual and most valuable things discovered in the lost or abandoned luggage of air travelers in the last year.
- While airlines handled a record-breaking number of checked bags in 2024 - 45.6-million of them in July alone - only a very small percentage (0.05% to be exact) were unable to be reunited with their owners. And those end up at Unclaimed Baggage.
Some of last year’s most fascinating and unexpected finds include:
- Freeze dried chicken foot
- Movie script from “The Goonies”
- Toilet seat
- Glass eye
- Teeth bedazzling kit
- Full sheet of uncut $2 bills
- Letter signed by Eleanor Roosevelt from 1944
- Cuckoo clock
The most valuable treasures found in bags in 2024 include:
- A $39-thousand diamond ring
- A $10-thousand Louis Vuitton suitcase
- A $14-thousand M11 Rangefinder camera
- A $20-thousand 18k gold Rolex watch
- A Chanel tweed coat dress worth $96-hundred
The most frequently found items last year:
- Underwear
- Pants
- Books - “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover was the most commonly found book
- Shoes - Men’s size 11 Nikes are the most common lost shoe
- iPhones
Source: Unclaimed Baggage