Shannon Bailey and her son Grady, 15, from Birmingham, Ala., pick out clothes at Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Ala.

AP Photos In this March 17 photo, multiple Ipods left behind on flights are available for purchase at Unclaimed Baggage in Scottsboro, Ala. Along a country road next to a muffler shop and a cemetery is a 40,000-square-foot store filled with all the items that never made it home from vacation. Shoes, samurai swords, iPods, even lingerie, all available for 20 to 80 percent off.

AP Airlines Writer

SCOTTSBORO, Ala. — Welcome to the final resting place for lost luggage.

Along a country road next to a muffler shop and a cemetery is a 40,000-square-foot store filled with all the items that never made it home from vacation. Shoes, samurai swords, iPods, even lingerie, all available for 20 to 80 percent off.

When airlines can’t determine who owns a bag, they sell it for a few bucks to the Unclaimed Baggage Center, a warehouse-sized facility that would put your local PTA garage sale to shame.

Past an entranceway of world clocks and columns decorated with foreign currency, one traveler’s misfortune turns into a bargain-hunter’s paradise.

“You never know what you may find,” says Clayton Grider, a Scottsboro youth minister who often starts his day at the store. “It is a sport.”

More than 2 million of the roughly 700 million suitcases checked on U.S. airlines last year didn’t arrive with their owners. The vast majority were returned within 24 hours, typically on the next flight. But 68,000 never made it. After 90 days unsuccessfully trying to reunite passenger and parcel, most airlines sell the bags here.

Shoppers seem to have no qualms about buying what was once a child’s favorite stuffed animal or a wedding dress that didn’t get to the church on time.

“I feel sorry for the guy who lost it,” says Chuck Trykoski, who bought a digital camera for $21. “I mean, I’ve

lost stuff on the airlines, too.”

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