Lost Your iPad? Buy It Back In Alabama

Oh, the things we lose while on the go. I left one beautiful blue Anthropologie coat in the bin above my seat on a bus and another cute little blue jacket in the bin above my seat on a plane. Now I have no blue coats and clearly I don’t deserve a third chance. People I know have lost library books, chargers, sweaters, and thousands of umbrellas en route from Point A to Point B; to some degree, it’s the price we pay for being mobile.

If you want to try to track down your misplaced possessions, though, try the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. Motto: You Never Know What You’ll Find! Just make sure to bring your wallet. This is not a place to claim your valuables; it’s a place to buy them anew.

According to a write up in the Times:

Its shelves are stocked not only with luggage lost, forgotten or ditched by airline passengers; the store also carries all the contents of that stray luggage deemed suitable for purchase. …

The boldest claim from Unclaimed, as it is known to local residents: There is no other place like it. Exclusive contracts are locked in with major United States-based airlines to load suitcases and other stuff from primary airports in trucks and haul them back to this northeast Alabama town of about 15,000 that, if not in the middle of nowhere, is in the vicinity.

Recent ramped-up promotional efforts, largely through social media, have generated news coverage. A spot on local TV lured three residents from northern Georgia last Thursday. Sandi Grimm, though impressed, found nothing that she said “floated my boat,” but the shopping cart of her friends Pam Aiken and Ed Lyon was laden with a typically odd assortment of goods seen here: a mattress and an 11-piece cooking set, both new, along with two iPads, cleansed of data from the previous owners. The price was $625 for the pair.

If anyone discovers some petite blue outerwear there, please let me know.

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