Anyone who’s ever left their headphones or wallet on a plane knows how annoying retrieving lost items can be. But most people don’t know that there’s actually a place where all that unclaimed stuff goes to be sold off to new owners.

The Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama is a 40,000-square-foot warehouse filled with the thousands of items that airline passengers have left behind in seat-back pockets or in unclaimed baggage. Between 500 and 700 items come in each day, and the public is welcome to come and shop the aisles of this surreal store.

Unsplash/Michał Parzuchowski

Unsplash/Erwan Hesry

So what are the weirdest things that have ever come through the center? Here are some of the most bizarre items:

Unsplash/Michał Parzuchowski

Unsplash/Erwan Hesry

  1. Shrunken heads

  2. A presidential platinum Rolex valued at $64,000

  3. An animatronic puppet (Hoggle) from the 1986 Jim Henson film Labyrinth

  4. A fifteen-foot rocket

  5. Ancient Egyptian artifacts found in an old Gucci suitcase, including a mummified falcon and shrunken head.

  6. A live rattlesnake

  7. A Naval guidance system valued at $250,000. The center returned the equipment to the Navy free of charge.

  8. A Barbie doll stuffed with $500 worth of rolled bills

  9. A 5.8-carat diamond set in a platinum ring and rolled up in a sock

  10. A violin from the 1770s. The violin is now kept in the Unclaimed Baggage Center Museum.

  11. A massive 40.95-carat natural emerald

  12. A full suit of replica 19-century armor

  13. A purse made out of a dried bullfrog

  14. A crocodile head

  15. Handmade Venetian masks

  16. A West Point uniform from 1929

  17. A Victorian flirting fan, hand-painted and decorated with gold and ivory

  18. A signed Gretzky jersey

  19. Whale vertebrae with a decorative ivory center

  20. A unicycle

  21. Lots and lots of wedding dresses

Of course, airlines do their best to reunite passengers with their forgotten or misplaced items. However, it’s pretty fascinating to see some of the bizarre stuff that makes its way through American airports every day.

If you’re planning on traveling soon, be sure to keep an eye on your stuff and try this new technology that scans your face to plan your vacation.

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