According to the new Unclaimed Baggage report, travelers will have left behind millions of items by 2025, including things as eccentric as a samurai sword, as expensive as diamond earrings and as historic as a World War II flight jacket.
Unclaimed Baggage, which calls itself the nation’s only seller of lost luggage, released its annual Found Report on Thursday, listing the most interesting finds from luggage that airports failed to return to passengers.
“Every year I am amazed at the treasures discovered in luggage and what they reveal about our society,” Bryan Owens, the company’s CEO, said in a statement. “After more than 55 years of reclaiming the lost and rejected, we often think we’ve seen it all. But then we discover something like a matching set of samurai swords, a fully assembled robot, a Dolce & Gabbana jeweled jacket or gold-plated golf clubs, and we’re reminded why the annual ‘Found Report’ exists.”
A pair of samurai swords and a World War II flight jacket were left behind by travelers. (Unclaimed Baggage / Unknown)
The report states that while 99.9% of checked bags are eventually returned to their owners, “a few take a detour – a detour that ends in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Scottsboro, Alabama,” the location of the Unclaimed Baggage store.
The top 10 finds for the company’s third annual report include a robot, a bionic knee, 10K gold teeth grills, a meteorite, a pair of fire poi used for fire dancing, an Australian pure gold bar, a matching set of samurai swords, a beekeeping suit, gold-plated golf clubs and a teak didgeridoo.
The top five most expensive finds include white diamond earrings estimated to be worth more than $43,000, a stainless steel Rolex watch with 18k yellow gold and a diamond dial worth about $35,000, a Tosca bass clarinet worth $17,500, a Leather jacket from Balenciaga worth $12,500 and a T530 thermal camera worth over $12,000.
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What the report describes as “weird” finds include a taxidermied deer form, a frog purse, a pre-World War I US Army bayonet, a giant stuffed goose, a long bone monster, an armadillo purse, a box of 12 packs of sardines, a fake skeleton, a suitcase filled with rat poison and a feather bow tie.
One passenger forgot his meteorite. (Unclaimed Baggage / Unknown)
The top sports find was autographed boxing gloves from undefeated boxing champion Terence Crawford, the top fashion find was the Miss North Dakota USA 2025 state suit designed by Ryan Castillo, and the top find from around the world was a Tibetan singing bowl.
A 1960s Ken doll complete with carrying case was the best pop culture find, vintage cassette tapes of Elvis and Bobby Helms’ Jingle Bell Rock were the best musical find, and a Commemorative coin from 1893 did the top currency evening.
A robot that couldn’t find its way home. (Unclaimed Baggage / Unknown)
The most important historical find was a leather A-2 flight jacket from the US Air Force and the best technical find was a Kellogg candlestick telephone from the 20th century.
The company noticed trends in travelers packing “more pop collectibles” like Labubus than ever, there was a “shift toward attainable luxury… without the premium price tag,” many books packed, especially “The Housemaid” author Freida McFadden, and more gold traveling than they had seen “in years.”
“From 24K dice to gold-plated golf clubs, this precious metal appeared in cases as both a statement and a store of value,” the report said.
The Miss North Dakota USA 2025 state costume, designed by Ryan Castillo, was the top fashion find. (Unclaimed Baggage / Unknown)
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Owens said at the time that one of the strangest things he had seen was a “well-traveled, almost worn-out Gucci suitcase, packed with stuff.” Egyptian artifacts that went back to 1500 BC.”
Owens added that the airlines “put a lot of effort” into reuniting bags with their owners because “it is much more economically to their advantage to reunite you with your bag than to sell us your unclaimed bags.”
