I Went To A Lost Luggage Store 

HELLO FRIENDS!! hope you guys enjoy our investigation into the Unclaimed Baggage store! what did you guys think of our Lost Looks (tm)? what's one treasure we should have picked up? make sure you check out our collab on HopeScope's channel after this one!! :) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-v5aHcu19wio.html - xoxo, saf

Let's normalize specifying that the *AIRLINE* LOST your luggage. You didn't lose your luggage. Don't let large companies weasel out of responsibility and then profit from their own incompetence

its such a strange ethical position for a place to resell other people's missing (stolen?) luggage but destroy counterfeit branded goods to prevent people selling them.

Something about the behavior of this store feels unnatural, like they are hiding something

Saf: "what is this item??" Chasity immediately without inspection "it's a piggy bank!....oh wait what is it is it a piggy bank?" Saf you're right these bags were sooooo staged 🤣

I think Saf was right about the bags they gave her to unbag being staged. There's no way someone would put Gucci sunglasses at the front of a soft shell checked bag....

The "experiment" of intentionally leaving a bag on a flight and having it show up in the store "weeks later" kinda proves the airlines don't actually wait 90 days ...

A woman from Toronto who recently returned home with Air Canada didn't have her luggage for 4 months... they said it was lost, but she had an Air Tag in it and was tracking it... turns out Air Canada had "donated" her lost luggage!

No hate to you Saf, but a good chunk of these items are not "lost" they are stolen. Airlines frequently intentionally "lose" luggage they want to sell and often do NOT wait the 90 day period. This store is soooo unethical and people should not spend their money there. They cannot do this anymore if the public refuses to endorse it. No consumers = no profit

I went to Unclaimed Baggage in late May. I was chosen to open one of the bags, and I got the same items that Safiya opened first. Down to the two fake Gucci and Versace shirts and funky slides. AND the yacht mop bag with chargers. These bags are completely staged

As someone who’s luggage was just lost by United just this past week, with almost no communication from United about where my bags were, I have to wonder how much of this stuff is actually just stolen. This is completely unethical.

"lost" is used very freely here. people DO NOT deliberately "loose" their luggage to this extent. Everyone knows how it is dealing with airlines with lost (by the airline) luggage. This shop feel super shady.

very happy to see everyone calling the ethics on this store without dragging queen safiya!!

This store is the epitome of nasty. First off, the prices are ridiculous. $60+ for used jeans that were basically stolen from someone's luggage??? Only donating the raggedy stuff that the charities will have to pay to dispose of?? They have stuff on display that they KNOW who the owners are but they are refusing to return them?? (Hoggle suit, what they thought was legit Basquait art, Donny Osmond clothes) The owner lady trying to make excuses, coming up with stories like "Oh this wedding dress/ ring probably was owned by someone who was cheating. Oh, this person probably didn't really need this laptop for school or work or anything, etc." It's disgusting. ALL of that stuff should be donated. Airlines should not be allowed to profit off of "losing" items in any way. They claim this reduces waste, but donating everything would produce even less waste. This is all just to profit off of misfortune. Disgusting.

These prices were all outrageous for what is basically selling “questionably acquired” goods.

Video felt very shady. What really threw me over the edge was the Hoggle puppet from Labyrinth. That movie is my all time favorite childhood movie, and to see it in this random luggage store infuriates me. There is no way that the person that's responsible for keeping him safe, just lost it. The airline specifically took it to be put as a display piece for this store

Lost literally everything I had because of a storage unit and covid, everything. After being left homeless, this was a serious hit. I'm still trying to recoup losses. Point being please remember some things weren't abandoned & certainly not forgotten..... Some of us had no choice or lacked the funds to keep our own belongings. You never know the sentiment behind some of these things, if there is any.

That place has awfully BOLD pricing considering they’re all secondhand items. Like most of that stuff was overpriced in my opinion.

First, I love Safiya so the negativity isn't about her. But this whole process feels so scummy. I don't believe for a SECOND that this many big-ticket items just get abandoned by airline users. The airlines have a side-hustle going on and it's at the expense of travelers. Also, that Hoggle puppet made me FURIOUS. There's NO WAY that they tried contacting someone in the Jim Henson Company because I can't see such a beloved piece of Henson history being intentionally left in some Alabama thrift store. Even if it's a replica, someone spent a lot of time and money on it and they deserve to get their collector's item back.

On one hand, this place sounds really fun to explore. On the other hand, it really rubs me the wrong way; the owners are so cagey and secretive about their process. And I know there are instances where things are deliberately lost by the airline so they can resell them to stores like this

The fact that Hoggle is there and not home back with the other Jim Henson puppets honestly breaks my heart

IMPORTANT TIP: when packing your luggage the last thing to do is right on top (so first thing u see when opening ) put a paper with ur flight info as well as contact info. Normally that’s the first place the luggage office checks if a tag is missing or something. This can prevent your luggage from ending up here. Happy travel and sending Much love, a former Airline employee

I definitely think that the reason why they didn't let you film in the warehouse is because there's most likely obvious contact information on the suitcases and didn't want their shady business to be uncovered. Not sure I can say that I'm a fan of this store...I find it really sad because 90% of the time, it's airlines that lose people's luggage and actively choose not to contact the owners regardless if there is contact information on the suitcases or not. The wedding dress and rings broke my heart.

As someone into fashion that off-white rhinestone sweatshirt is 100% fake. I don't know if I'd trust this store and its "authentication" process.

I was a travel professional for years and this is the exact reason I always advised my clients to NEVER check anything in their luggage that they were not willing to lose. You need to travel with wedding clothes? Ship them separately and have them insured. I don't even begin to understand the mindset of someone who packs expensive items of jewelry into a bag they then let out of their sight.

Something feels really shady about this business. I'm not sure whether it's legally shady or just morally. It just leaves a sour taste in my mouth thinking that airlines lost peoples' (often sentimental) valuables and they end up being riffled through by someone looking to make a quick buck.

Airline selling the luggage THEY lost is so violently American. Honestly, kind of disgusting.

Hello. As a 15 yr thriftshop worker (not American so maybe things differ there) here are my adds. 1. Don't go into any retail place ever in sandals. Glass breaks all the time. This may be why they didn't want you in the back rooms. I would have thrown you out without steel toed boots. 2. When a thrift shop says they are going to donate something, they are either going to abandon it somewhere in the middle of the night or trash it. If you can't sell it, probably no one else can. 3. Same for recycle. You can recycle pure metal, or paper or maybe glass. A used toothbrush? Don't kid yourself. Really. 4. Kudos to that company for laundering their finds. This does not happen in Canada. 5. If you can't sell your fakes, they will go into landfill. Putting it into an orange tray marked recycle is such a lot of sugar coating. They might as well say they are sending it to a farm in the country where it can run free and play with other Versace knockoffs.

I imagine that a vast majority of the items that are “recycled” are actually incinerated or put into a landfill (same with a lot of the donated stuff). I work at a landfill and if it really was economically feasible to recycle those items then the landfill would fill up MUCH slower. Clothes especially are very rarely recycled, as it is difficult to repurpose the fibers from so many different types of materials with different chemical processes and colorants added.

They definitely staged those bags! They probably didn’t want you filming the sorting process, and gave you staged bags, because they didn’t want to show any personal identifications of who might have previously owned the bags, or contraband, and they probably wanted to ensure that the bags they gave you to ‘sort’ were safe to film in advance.

The only reason I can think that they wouldnt give you real suitcases and wouldnt let you in the back is that the suitcases likely often come with obvious information that would have led to someone being reunited with their lost things. What a shady store.

99.5%, my ass. There's a HUGE problem these days with luggage getting "lost". The powers that should not be are doing their best to make people not want to leave their houses, much less travel.

This is not lost or abandoned luggage, it’s basically stolen property that airlines get away with. People call and claim for their possessions and they give a run around during the claiming processes

literally DYING over you calling out the bags being staged LMAO you were so pleasant and sweet ab it too haha

next collab: Tyler and Tyler wear matching velvet overalls for a day 👯‍♂️

I always, *always* put valuable/sentimental items in my carry-on, and I try not to check a bag if I can help it. I will definitely continue to do so after seeing this store lmaoo

How are they able to sell the Apple products? There's no way to wipe an iPad without the user passcode. Super shady.

Tip for getting your lost bag back? Tell the airline there’s medication in it and request an “escalation.” At least in the EU, escalated searches mean they will literally track your bag with security cameras through the baggage chain in the airport. Worked for me 👍🏽

As someone who has airline traveled for a couple marching band trips over the years, those “unclaimed” instruments make me so sad and angry. The most of the owners of those instruments probably were traveling to or from some sort of concert or performance so I cannot even imagine how heartbroken they were to “loose” something so valuable to them.

you don't lose your luggage the air port refuses to help and don't find it for you. this whole thing is shady and wrong. the air lines and port need to be held responsbil for all this

Watching this before and after experiencing having my luggage lost is very different, I think a lot of people that haven’t had to handle airlines giving them the go around about their luggage may not understand, it’s so unnecessarily complicated and aggravating. I honestly think that most of the luggage that is there is probably because people gave up trying to get their luggage back or the airlines just straight up never ‘found’ it. The sentimental things that the airlines lost lost makes me so sad, like I was missing mainly clothes and toiletries and some stuffed animals and I was an anxious wreak until I got it back I can’t imagine the feeling of actually never getting those things that mean so much to you back.

At first when you said that the store donates a percentage of the goods I was like "oh, they're so sweet", then I realized they give to charity the trash they will have to pay to get rid of.

As someone who's on their 15th day of not having received my bag, this is terrifying. Also I didn't lose my bag, THE AIRLINE did. And i dont give a shit that they reimburse me if it's gone for good, there are very personal and sentimental items in my suitcase that cannot be replaced. EDIT: I GOT MY BACK BAG!!! 5 days before I had to turn around and go back to Amsterdam and about 5 1/2 weeks after I'd arrived in San Diego, they finally delivered it to my door. I was SHOCKED but mainly just really happy!

This store should be shut down. This is legal robbery. Absolutely disgusting.

Store Owner: “Look at all the lost things that could never possibly be returned yet I’m able to name drop the famous people they belonged to” Bishhhhhhh

I wouldn’t mind this if I knew airlines did their due diligence to return luggage, but they definitely don’t. Also donating primarily trash items and not items that charities actually need is a scummy move, especially since companies usually do this just so they don’t have to pay to dispose of the items themselves and get a tidy little tax write off.

This entire concept infuriates me to be honest lol. I've had my luggage lost by an airline, they never found it, the amount I got reimbursed was nowhere near the amount of goods I had in the suitcase, and to think my stuff is probably in a store in Alabama? Thanks, I hate it.

Kudos Saf for making comments in the video (and keeping them through the editing process) that were honest about how you felt about the overall experience and questioning some of the things that seemed sus about what was going on behind the scenes. I think the jacket you found made you look sort of like a detective, which I thought was an interesting coincidence given the situation... While I enjoyed the outfit reveal fashion show and seeing the interesting items, it is definitely incredibly sad how those items ended up in the shop in the first place. The high prices of most of the items surprised me as well.

Watching this video just made me so sad and feel so scummy. Losing luggage is a big fear of mine and I imagine other people. To know that airlines will pawn off my personal sentimental belongings to a lady scamming people somewhere in Alabama with no hope of having it returned to me even if it's my WEDDING RING OR DRESS??? that's downright disgusting

FYI: Henson was traveling with Hoggle from the UK when he got “lost”. Evidently they refuse to give him back to the Henson family. It’s pretty gross honestly. These are someone’s items purposely lost and then sold. The incompetency.

Honestly this seemed innocent enough at the start but as I continued watching I felt more and more disgusted. Humans can be really evil sometimes

Getting my luggage stolen was one of the worst things which happened to me, I had my pc and all my USB keys/SD cards with all my pictures/videos/music/etc from the last ten years, and a lot of my favorite clothes... Even if those are just "objects", it made completely depressed. So it makes me mad seeing people profiting from lost/stolen luggages. I'm sure all these people tried to get their luggage back. This is really fucked up.

Anyone who’s lost luggage knows that the airline doesn’t try at all to contact the owners of the lost luggage.

I just wanted to say: with people being skeptical of the business model of this place, that that's not directed towards Safiya. I think she did a great job at showing what this place is and was honest in her concerns too. The video was super interesting and I think it's great that she went there as it's such a unique concept

I'll never forget when I lost my luggage in Scotland. The sweetest old man who worked at the airport drove my bag from Glasgow to Edinburgh and I had no idea until he knocked on my door. But I lost a piece of luggage in the US and it was horrible trying to get it back.

I'm pretty sure they weren't allowed in the back because then they would film all the "lost" bags with the name tags containing the owner's contact information still on them.

And this is exactly why I carry on everything and try to avoid checked bags AT ALL COSTS!

How absolutely scummy is it when they overcharge for a plane ticket, require loads of personal information just to get on the airplane, and then they sell your lost luggage for more profit instead of connecting the dots -- dots that we KNOW they have -- to get that luggage back to you. This should not be legal. They're crooks.

The fact that these airlines are profiting from peoples lost items (that THEY, the AIRLINE lost)... is just so horrible 💔😢

seeing that vampire book, which i was VERY obsessed with for a hot minute in middle school, show up in a safiya nygaard video was like falling down a flight of stairs.

I live about 30 minutes from this store. It's a fun store to go look at, especially around here where there's not much like it. But I rarely buy anything because they price their stuff high. However, if you want to buy luggage/backpacks its a good place to look. It doesn't look like they showed the Annex. Where there's 4 floors of just random junk. And as you go down (the top floor is ground level) the worst it gets. I'm talking ziplock bags full of questionable medicines and toiletries.

This video makes me want to volunteer at the airport to be a "customer baggage advocate" whose only job is to do a bunch of detective work to reunite people with their lost luggage.

How the store can charge that much when they didn’t even pay for the clothes is…. Alarming…

Airlines don’t do s*** to get people their luggage, they just say they do. My classmate’s luggage was “misplaced” on his flight from Edinburgh back to the US. They kept insisting that they had no record of his luggage. He complained on his private Facebook, then I publicly tweeted at them, also tagging the airport. The Edinburgh airport immediately responded, throwing the airline under the bus. Suddenly, the airline “miraculously” found his luggage and had it delivered to his home in Tennessee.

as soon as I see a bunch of 15-16 year olds are in charge of stuff and they can’t disclose their process, that was the cherry on top for “we are doing shady shit and we know it”

Just wanted to say I am really appreciating the discussion in the comments about the major ethical issues with this store. Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts and experiences!

The prices they're trying to charge for some of this stuff is WILD.

4:40 how is the owner of the bag reimbursed if you cant find the owner????????

7,000 items added into the 50 sqr foot store but yet 99% of suitcases are returned to their owners....👀😂

Chasity is like a mom watching her kid open Christmas presents and pretending to be surprised even tho she knows what everything is

I'm sorry but for second hand items (basically) that you know the company got for dirt cheap, it makes no sense for everything to be THAT expensive.

This has me thinking about the time that I found my luggage locked up (along with luggage of around ten other passengers) inside a Delta office near the luggage claim, and we only got our stuff back after bugging employees for around two hours. Also had to show my tag and ID to get it back, even though it should have just been on the belt with everyone else’s.

I still think about the 3 suit cases of my families that the airline lost. Took us months to confirm they were truly lost. Pretty shocking knowing that only 90 days goes buy until they sell it when we had to fight the airline for much longer

This should be illegal… how convenient to “lose” luggage then be able to sell it?? Donate it to non-profits sure but to sell it? No. And all that they’d donate was ugly and worn stuff. Unethical.

If that suitcase had a wet towel in it for 90+ days EVERYTHING would be ruined. So something isnt adding up.

Before travelling overseas familiarise yourself with the Montreal Convention. Most countries are signatories and it protects your rights, many airlines try to lie about their liability for reimbursement but most people are covered by this for international travel and it supersedes any contract or signage the airline might have in place. Also report your bag delayed an hour after you arrive as this triggers the Montreal Convention in your case. Safe travels 😊

This is why I printout a bunch of papers with my name, number, address, email, and backup contact, put them in as many places as possible (including my jacket) and keep at least two full trips worth of medication split between my carry-on and checked luggage. I can't survive without my medication, and I don't ever trust an airline with my health. It definitely shouldn't be like this.

The thing that made me question the business was that they said if the airline couldn't find the owner of the luggage, the luggage was sent to the store in Alabama. They also said at one point that the owner was reimbursed for the lost luggage. If the owner couldn't be found, how could they be reimbursed?

I think most of the time, *you* didn't lose the luggage, *the airline* did. Some airlines are notorious for losing people's luggage especially when there are layovers. To the point where it's best to just bring hand luggage when there's a layover.

This is so triggering for anyone who had their luggage listed as “lost” by an airline. And to those who desperately contacted the airports/airlines to conveniently Only get a response after the “90-day” period was over … it’s all super obvious unfortunately

i always love some Safiya content, but i just cant believe this store is actually legal cause this is just shady

Wowwww that big second hand embarrassment I got when Safiya called them our for staging the bags AND the lady just giggling then cheerfully admitting she did... and then going on acting like she didn't just admit that and treating the rest as if they weren't staged. 😳

That violin they showed really hurt me 😭 as a musician I know how important instruments are to people and that was probably one of their most prized possessions. I’d highly doubt they just never tried to get it back-string instruments used by serious players are thousands of dollars. I recently was thinking about flying with my cello but decided not to because airlines are so irresponsible with instruments and there are a lot of horror stories of them being destroyed. I can’t imagine losing my cello and then it being sold to a random person to profit the airline that would hurt so bad

“It’s a piggybank! … is it a piggybank?” Good save, Chastity

Considering that a lot of lost luggage is the airline's fault and not the travelers' faults, kinda fucked up of them to be selling it at all I know not everything can be donated but much of the clothing can definitely be donated. Instead they keep the best quality items to sell...? And at such high prices...? Everything that CAN be donated should be, just from an ethical standpoint. Seriously, doesn't it seem like the opportunity to profit might encourage the "losing" of luggage? Its already not a terribly uncommon occurrence idk :/ Personally, I'd also feel better knowing my lost luggage potentially helped those in need than think about it being sold for someone else's profit

honestly, this feels like scavengers and vultures taking advantage of other people's misfortune. makes me sick to think of people like these going through my things, sorting and selling, while i desperately search and wonder and never get over the loss. the whole '90 days' waiting seems completely false, there's no way a towel stayed wet that long, no mould, nothing. anyone who travels knows a wet towel (or socks or anything) makes EVERYTHING completely rank in a day or two. that luggage was lost a few days AT MOST.

Chastity looks like parents on Christmas looking at their kids open their Christmas present like “omg how did that get there”

funny enough this store was like 15 minutes away from where i lived as a teenager, and i had always heard of it, but kinda side-eyed it’s whole existence. glad i never visited because it seems like i wasn’t that far off :/ i’ve been lucky enough to only lose my luggage once in the ~200 or so flights i’ve been on in my life, but those couple of days where i had nothing to wear or clean myself with were incredibly stressful. i’m just glad i wasn’t traveling for anything important and that my parents had the money to replace all of my hygiene products until i got my bag back. i just can’t help but feel bad for all the people who had their luggage lost by an airline, only to have it picked through and resold

"space exploration thing going on" LOL that's the Huntsville space center, there's so much cool shit there. Definitely recommend a visit, they have Apollo11 VR simulation, an underwater SCUBA training experience that you can pay to do, a multi-axis trainer, g-force accelerator, and $10 flight simulators (one of which takes you into a black hole??? it's so dope, idk) Would love to see a video of y'all doing that (:

the fact that she was deciding within seconds which things were deemed what like rapid fire i had a solid indication that it was heavily staged. ive worked retail, and even then we take time to bare minimum inspect things when unpacking for issues before deciding they can go onto the floor. and Chasity was a terrible actress.

I love how everyone in the comments is bashing the "store". Maybe thanks to Safiya's wide audience more people will be aware of this shady business and will at least know where to expect to find lost items of sentimental value.

Went to Disney World with my family when I was sixteen, and three of us shared a big suitcase to cut down on the bag costs. It got "lost" on the flight there and I was sobbing in the Orlando airport, my mom and I both got sick on the trip, and most of my mom's downtime at Disney was spent calling the airports and airline over and over again to try to get our stuff. We never got it back. I don't think my sixteen year old wardrobe of anime graphic tees and jean shorts was all that valuable, nor were my fourteen year old sibling's similar choices of clothing. However, my mom is a deadhead and had much of her tie dye collection in the suitcase, including decades-old Grateful Dead tie dyes and her Grateful Dead 50th anniversary tie dye from just a couple years prior, which she got after spending a pretty penny to fly out to see the 50th tour. It had many collector's items and old t-shirts that I'm sure would sell very well. Before we left, my mom made sure to put a paper inside that had our contact information, just in case. We took nearly all the precautions we could - minus not having a checked bag at all, that is. There's simply no way that they lost it and couldn't contact us to give it back; someone had to have seen the shit inside and decided this store deserved it more than us, to make a profit for the airline and the store. It's disgusting. Six and a half years later, I always put as much as I can, my most loved and sentimental items, in my carry on. It really was a defining moment in my life. I will never trust checked bags again. BE CAREFUL. (also I had a weird premonition on the flight where I was planning my outfits in my head and then thought 'no I can't count on wearing that shirt, what if we lose the luggage?' so do with that haunting information what you will)

reminder that it’s not you who lose your luggage, but the airline

not gonna lie this is sus as fuck to me lol. people do not loose their luggage willingly, ive never met a single person who goes "oh well!" when their luggage is lost ... it's always them trying their best to call places and the airlines shrugging their shoulders and saying it was simply lost and that there's nothing they can do about it. finding out that stores like this exist makes me sick to my stomach.

My mum has lost her suit case while traveling twice in the last 20 years. A lot of those items are still sorely missed, even though she did everything possible to recover it. It makes me a bit sad to see a whole store of lost luggage :(

Huntsville, AL "seems to have some sort of space exploration thing going on". THAT IS NASA SAFIYA

This just reminds me of the twice I have had luggage lost. One of those times I got it back two months later but once I didn’t even though we desperately tried and contacted them multiple times. I just wonder how many times the airline just doesn’t try hard enough to return it because it was easier to sell it off for a profit. I’d rather stuff be resold than gone to a land fill but this feels SO sketchy.

I lost luggage and never got it back. Cried the entire day while I was at the passenger services office because I lost stuff that was given to me by my late grandmother. I'm tearing up that it probably ended up in stores like this....

I have a feeling that loads of the incoming suitcases have clearly visible identification and if they allowed y'all back there it would show they were more concerned with profit from the start than giving these item a new life or even getting them back to their true owners.

It’s so weird seeing random RU-vidrs visiting your hometown and a store that you’ve seen all your life!!! My friend showed me this video and I was beyond shocked that our little hometown got into a big video! It’s fun to see it from a visitor’s perspective!