Air travelers’ lost bags can be shoppers’ found treasure
Ever wonder what happened to that suitcase the airline lost?
Chances are the airline paid you a few hundred dollars to $3,000, depending on the value of your bag’s contents, and then sold your lost luggage to an Alabama clearinghouse.
Once there, your dirty flip-flops and half-squeezed tube of toothpaste were thrown out, and the cheaper clothing was donated to charity. Your designer duds, cameras and other choice odds and ends, however, were sold at bargain basement prices to deal-seekers from across the country.
Alabama company Unclaimed Baggage Center sells all that lost stuff out of a massive warehouse-style store in Scottsboro, Ala., that covers an entire city block.
Company spokeswoman Brenda Cantrell wouldn’t say how much the Unclaimed Baggage Center pays airlines per bag or how many it collects from locations across the country.
“We only put out the cream of the crop,” Cantrell said.
In addition to lost luggage contents (and the baggage itself), the company also sells the coats, glasses and electronics left behind in airplane cabins.
Opening bags can unearth treasure troves of designer clothing, expensive jewelry and electronics or, in one case, a suitcase full of cheese that had been sitting in a sweltering warehouse for three months. Ick.
Though the overwhelming majority of goods are sold at the Alabama warehouse, some of the merchandise is sold online at Unclaimed Baggage’s Web site, www.unclaimedbaggage.com.
In the market for an iPod? How about $75 instead of the $150 you’d pay retail. Cameras go for half price or less. And if it fits, why not slip into a cropped Dolce & Gabbana jacket – $250.
Mishandled baggage is an increasing problem for U.S. airlines. In February, they lost, delayed or damaged 366,080 bags. That’s 8.23 bags for every 1,000 passengers, an increase from 6.1 per 1,000 passengers in February 2006.
Far less than 1 percent of luggage goes unclaimed and ends up at the Unclaimed Baggage Center because most mishandled bags are eventually returned to their owners.
While some might expect volumes of perfume and other toiletries to be increasing, that hasn’t been the case, said Cantrell.
To prevent your precious belongings from landing in Alabama, make your bags more identifiable by taping your name and contact information to the inside of your bags. Outer tags can tear off too easily.
Other suggestions include making sure zippers and other closures are working properly, arriving in plenty of time to check the bags and verifying the information on the destination tag on your bag.
Survey says …
People living along Idaho’s state Highway 97 believe improvements are needed to handle traffic and improve safety, according to a Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization survey.
The group held a public meeting last week to discuss the issue.
Improvements most suggested in the survey conducted prior to the meeting include: adding guard rails, widening lanes at curves, better maintaining the road surface and adding more pull-outs for slow vehicles.
Others suggested that further development on the route be prohibited until the highway is improved to handle more traffic.
Keep it in your car
Don’t think it matters if trash flies out of the back of your pickup or if you throw a lit cigarette out the window onto the side of the road?
Well, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology, 400 state highway wrecks each year are caused by road debris.
Burning cigarettes annually cause about 40 brush fires along the highway.
Not to mention that littering is just plain dirty and nasty.
Still not convinced?
Maybe a fine will do the trick – $1,025 for throwing a lit cigarette from a vehicle and $194 for improperly securing a load.
The Washington State Patrol is stepping up its patrols, focusing on these problems.
Bridge joint saga
As of the weekend, that Tacoma Narrows Bridge expansion joint was still stuck in Spokane.
It should hit the road this week, however, and will cause traffic tie-ups on I-90 along its cross-state route.
You can track its progress once it starts its journey at www.tacomanarrows bridge.com.
Valley and prairie traffic
The Spokane Regional Transportation Council is holding an open house Wednesday to solicit public input on solutions to growing traffic congestion in the east Spokane Valley and west Rathdrum Prairie area.
In particular, the group is studying the area between Sullivan Road on the west, Highway 41 on the east, Highway 290/Trent on the north and the ridge along Mica Peak on the south.
The open house is from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday in the multipurpose room at Central Valley High School, 821 S. Sullivan Road in Spokane Valley.
Slow going
North Spokane
Work to add left-turn lanes to U.S. Highway 395 at Wild Rose Road could cause some traffic delays.
Maple Street is closed from Northwest Boulevard to just north of Wellesley Avenue until the end of June. Wellesley is reduced to one lane in each direction at Ash Street and Maple Street.
Washington Street will be intermittently closed to northbound traffic between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. this week between Maxwell Avenue and Boone Avenue.
Freya Street is closed from Euclid to Garland and from Market Street to Gerlach Road, and Regal Street is closed from Garland to Rich.
West Spokane
The right lane on the westbound U.S. Highway 2 bridge just before the Spokane Airport exit will be closed from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. today.
The Geiger interchange bridge over I-90 will have flaggers and one-way traffic Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Spokane Valley
Several streets are closed in the area of Evergreen Road, Valleyway and Best Road in Spokane Valley for sewer work. Springfield, Alki, Nixon and Valleyway are all closed from Evergreen to Best; Nixon is also closed from Best to Calvin; Bannen Road and Bolivar Road are closed from Sprague to Valleyway; and Calvin is closed from Main to Nixon.
Fourth Avenue is closed from Evergreen Road to Bolivar this week for sewer construction.
North Idaho
Government Way is under construction in Hayden between Honeysuckle and Wyoming.