Movie Scripts, Sheets of Cash, and a Rattlesnake: The Weirdest Items Found in Luggage in 2024

According to the most recent data reported to the US’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, about two million piece of luggage per year are lost or delayed by airlines. Though that number seems large, it actually only represents about .6 percent of bags, making the chances still quite high that your luggage arrives when and where it’s supposed to.

However, of those .6 percent of bags, something strange happens to a small fraction of them: they go unclaimed. No one reports them missing, they have no contact information on them, and airlines have no records of where they were supposed to be. That could happen because travelers forgot about them, or perhaps thought they were irretrievably lost, or may not know there are options for trying to track down their checked bags. Other concerns, like language barriers or bureaucratic frustrations, may also cause travelers to give up on their bags.

Whatever the reason, one person’s loss is another person’s gain. Many unclaimed bags end up at a store in Alabama called the Unclaimed Baggage Center. It’s the only place in the US authorized to open and sell the contents of lost bags.

Photo: Lucian Coman/Shutterstock

This year, the store released its second annual report of the items people left behind, and the results are even weirder than last year. In 2023, lost luggage contained items like live snakes, movie props, an ancient Greek coin, and even a custom wooden box containing items related to the practice of Voodoo.

But in 2024, the value of items left behind was more than $140,000, including a $39,000 diamond ring, a $5,000 pair of Levi’s jeans, a $7,100 handmade flute, and a $1,700 dog carrier. While this year’s list of weird items left behind fortunately didn’t include any live animals, it did include a chicken foot, tons of designer swag, a Roman solider’s helmet, and a sheet of uncut US currency (which it turns out you can actually buy from the US Mint). The rest of the list included:

A sad LARPer (Live Action Role Play-er) must have turned up to play with nothing to wear. Photo: TheLiftCreativeServices/Shutterstock

• Freeze-dried chicken foot
• Adidas x Balenciaga pantashoes track pants (pants with shoes attached)
• Movie script from The Goonies
• 3D-printed modular fiddle
• Squash blossom necklace
• Turkish ceremonial wedding headdress
• Toilet seat
• Teeth bedazzling kit
• Glass eye
• Full sheet of uncut $2 bills
• Chia pet
• Medieval LARPing suit of armor
• Santa on a log with a pumpkin
• Weird Barbie
• Letter signed by Eleanor Roosevelt, dated 1944
• Preserved rattlesnake in whiskey
• Antique French book on performing exorcisms
• Tibetan singing bowl
• Dom Pérignon show helmet
• Silicon butt pads
• Cuckoo clock
• Asian spirit lock necklaces from the 1920s
• 1941 newspaper clipping of the attack on Pearl Harbor
• Pack of authentic Prada crayons
• Steel Roman solider helmet
• Widow’s mite
• Piece of fordite
• Goat tying dummy
• Six-string portable pocket guitar
• Full face respirator from NBC Network News
• Antique stereoscope slide viewer
• Silicon belly
• Handmade wooden masks
• Hawaiian shark tooth weapon
• Glow-in-the-dark drumsticks
• Nam man prai thai amulet
• Ethiopian begena (instrument)
• Toilet brush shaped like a cherry
• Antique magician top hat
• Antique mustache curler

The report also noted other interesting trends for 2024, such as a higher-than average amount of political hats, t-shirts, and totes — perhaps not surprising in the US during a contentious election year. Also seen frequently in 2024 were items made popular on TikTok, like Stanley water bottles and packing cubes, plus wellness products like hydration powders. It also noted that women’s underwear was found far more often than mens, and that the most commonly left behind pair of jeans were wide-leg women’s jeans in size 10. However, if you’re in the market for footwear, guys have the advantage, with size 11 men’s Nike sneakers being the most commonly left behind pair of kicks.