Did you ever wonder what happens to lost luggage?

Is it sucked into a vortex, like some sock-eating washing machine in the sky? Does it slip quietly into a parallel universe? No, it goes to Alabama.

Alabama?

Scottsboro, Alabama is the lost luggage capital of the world. It is the home of the Unclaimed Baggage Center where you can buy a lost $1000 Versace dress for $55, a tube of slightly used Japanese toothpaste for 50 cents, a $15,000 sapphire and diamond bracelet for $7500, gold wedding bands for half their value, and a black lace teddy for $3.

Why do bags get lost?

The airlines say late check-in is the number one reason because the luggage may not be loaded on the same airplane as the passenger. Second, bags get lost when passengers are making connections even if they are traveling with the same airline. Bags can be tagged erroneously at the airport and end up at the wrong destination. Tags get ripped off and there is no name and address to be found inside or outside the bag. Sometimes the bags are stolen

All luggage the major airlines cannot find the owners are sold to a salvage company- Unclaimed Baggage Center. It is sent to Scottsboro where the luggage is opened and the contents are sorted, cleaned and priced. They have a staff of appraisers who determine the original value of the items then apply a set discount. All items are then put on display and sold to the public.

And the public loves it. The Unclaimed Baggage Center has become the number one tourist attraction in Alabama with over 800,000 visitors a year. They come partly for the bargains and part for the entertainment value of peeking into someone else's stuff.

Why does lost airline luggage end up in Scottsboro, Alabama?

It all started in 1970, when an insurance salesman named H. Doyle Owens borrowed $300 and a pickup truck and bought a hundred or so bags left on Greyhound buses. He brought them back to Scottsboro, a town with a population of about 15,000, and sold them off card tables.

For Owens it was just a part-time business until 1978. Now the Unclaimed Baggage Center covers an entire city block- 50,000 square feet, employs 110 workers, has a cafe and stays open Monday thru Saturday.

When they first started, they sold the suitcases and the entire contents sight unseen. They charged about $15-$20. Some people found cash. Some found valuable jewelry.

As the business grew, they started opening up the suitcases and processing the contents. About 1,000,000 items a year are put on sale on the floor of the Unclaimed Baggage Center.

Sixty percent of the items sold are clothing. All clothing is cleaned and pressed in one of the largest laundry facilities in the state. Racks and racks of clothes cover the main floor of the store. There are shelves of books, racks of CDs, baskets of Walkman's and inexpensive cameras, and a jewelry counter. Sporting goods line the wall on one end of the store. Unclaimed cargo fills a room on the other side.

If you get tired of shopping you can sit in the cafe and have a cup of Starbucks coffee. Or, you can visit the tiny museum displaying some of their rarest and strangest finds. A puppet from a Jim Henson movie. A 1770 violin. A Stetson hat signed "To Brent from Muhammad Ali 9/22/88".

The airlines will not admit that they do business with Unclaimed Baggage Center. If you ask, they will only say that their mishandled bags are sold to a salvage company. Owens has a written agreement with the airlines to not disclose from whom he buys the merchandise or for how much. But, he says "Everyone in the airline industry knows us," and he will admit that he doesn't have any competition.

What if someone should show up in Scottsboro and find something that belonged to them? Could they lay claim?

"Theoretically, their claim would have been settled and they would have already been paid for their loss," Owens says. "They would have to buy it back. It's an arm's length transaction for us. We just provide a necessary service. We're capitalists."

Unclaimed Baggage Center doesn't promote itself except for maybe a few brochures available at Alabama rest stops or on its website. They mostly rely on word-of-mouth and free listings in tourist's guides.

After thinking about it, a business like this makes complete sense, but who would ever imagine it would be located in such an out of the way place or that a family could become rich from something they started on card tables.

And, if you can't make the trip -- which is a 2-hour drive from Birmingham and about 2 1/2 hours from Atlanta -- you can check out their website at www.unclaimedbaggage

You stand around the baggage carousel, watching passengers pick up bag after bag - yours never surfaces . . Most lost luggage hopped a different airplane than you, heading for Los Angeles instead of London instead of Boise. Most lost luggage is usually back in the hands of waiting owners within 24 hours, but that isn't much help when everything you intended to bring with you is a thousand miles away.

Should you find yourself standing forlornly by a baggage carousel, report the missing bags to the airline. They'll start a computerized trace, and eventually be able to tell you just where your clothes are vacationing -- or that they truly are lost.

Once found, your bags will be brought back to your location. While you wait, the airline may compensate you for emergency, out-of-pocket expenses for toiletries or some clothing, depending on the situation. Generally, you'll be offered more money if you're away from home, and most likely more money the longer the delay in returning your bags.

Keep in contact with the airline while they're searching for your bags -- in most cases, they're quick to contact you once your bags are located, and in most cases, they'll even deliver the found luggage to you.

If your bags are genuinely lost, you must file a claim. It's best to do so before leaving the airport, although you'll generally have 21 to 45 days to file (depending on the airline). The claim process isn't fun, and it's not easy. You'll have to provide a list of what items were in your bags, when and where they were purchased, and the cost.

Keep a copy of your claim, along with your baggage checks and tickets. The wait to be reimbursed for such a claim could be long -- keep in contact with the airline.

Keep in mind also that there is a limit to how much you can claim for lost luggage -- in the United States, it's $1,250 PER PERSON. In Canada it's $750 (US$540). The Warsaw Convention limits the airlines' luggage liability on international flights to about US$9.07 per pound.

And -- electronic equipment, cameras, jewelry, business documents, money and fragile or perishable goods fall outside airlines' liability.

Additional insurance can be purchased, and may well be a very good idea, particularly for more expensive items.

Preventative Luggage Medicine

The best way to avoid lost luggage is not to check any at all, but that's not always possible. The air travel industry says that very few bags are lost each year -- here are some tips that may keep you from becoming one of the few:

• Pack jewelry, documents, medicine, or any necessary items in your carry-on luggage.
• Here's one you might not think of: If you're traveling with someone else, don't put all your eggs in one basket, or in this case, all your clothes in one bag. Split 'em between bags -- if one bag is lost, you'll each have something clean to wear.
• Label your luggage on the inside and outside -- name, phone number, address (preferably a business address). Include your itinerary on the inside of your bags so you can be traced more easily. And remove any old claim checks from the bags.
• Lock your bags. Check the locks when you arrive, and report any damage or missing items to the airline immediately.
• Arrive at the airport in plenty of time. One of the leading causes of lost luggage is late arrivals -- the bag just doesn't have the time to make it to the plane.
• Connections pose another problem - avoid them if possible. When connecting from a domestic flight to an international one, collect your baggage at the international gateway, carry it yourself to the international terminal and check it again.