The Brief

Planning to fly somewhere this week? You are not alone. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 30 million people over the Thanksgiving holiday. That's a lot of suitcases for airlines to keep track of, and unfortunately, some are bound to get lost. So where does all that lost luggage end up? In a store called Unclaimed Baggage, in Scottsboro, Ala.

Every suitcase lost by an airline in the United States (and some lost on trains and buses) eventually ends up in this little city about 150 miles northwest of Atlanta, in a 50,000-square-foot building. And it's all for sale. At a big discount.

Unclaimed Baggage is laid out like a regular department store, and not just a bunch of bins in a big warehouse. There is even a formal wear and jewelry department

(

Melanie Peeples

)

It's laid out like a department store, clothes here, shoes there, shelves of books – because who hasn't accidentally left a book on a plane? But that's not the most exciting part.

"The most popular area of the store is the mezzanine," said Sonni Hood, who first started working for Unclaimed Baggage as a teenager, but is now the public relations manager.

"This is home to our electronics department," she said. "Anything from cell phones and laptops, tablets, headphones, you name it!"

All electronics are wiped clean to remove any personal data, and checked out to make sure they work. The laptops, iPads and Nintendo Switches all sell for around half the price of a new one.

But there are even more interesting things up here. Skis, snowboards, an entire bin of skateboards. (Who knew so many people travel with skateboards? They can't all be Tony Hawk's!) There's a sled, a women's pole vaulting pole and even a Bates Kimberly stock saddle. And brand new riding boots.

The electronics department is always a huge hit. The latest cell phones, ipads, and laptops are priced at about half the cost of new ones. The store's tech department employees wipe all personal data from the items and make sure everything works.

(

Melanie Peeples

)

None of it surprises Hood.

"Anything that you can think of, someone has likely packed it in their suitcase."

And, unfortunately, lost it. But don't feel too bad about that. When an airline loses a suitcase for good, they end up compensating the owner for the contents.

Here's how it works: When a suitcase gets lost (or a pole vaulting shipping container) the airline spends up to three months trying to get it back to its owner. But after three months, the airline gives up and reimburses the owner, up to $3,800.

In fact, 99.5% of suitcases checked on airlines do NOT get lost. It's just that the 0.5% that does, adds up to a LOT of stuff. That's where Unclaimed Baggage CEO Bryan Owens comes in. His father started this business in 1970. Owen's father enjoyed listening to ham radios and one day heard a friend in Washington, D.C., say he worked with Trailways and didn't know what to do with all the unclaimed bags they had.

"A little light bulb went off in my dad's head and he's like, 'I think I can help you,'" said Owens.

So he borrowed $300 and a pickup truck and drove up to Washington, D.C., to buy the unclaimed luggage. Then he drove it back home and tried to sell it.

"People were just standing outside the door and in lines and we were open two days a week to begin with, and as the story continues his [dad's] boss told him, 'You gotta figure out which one of us you love the most, your insurance job or your entrepreneurial venture,' and my dad didn't think twice about it."

Owens' mom wasn't so sure about it, but 53 years later, Unclaimed Baggage is one of the top tourist destinations in Alabama. A million people visit every year. They've had someone from every state. Many make an annual pilgrimage here.

Unclaimed Baggage in Scottsboro, Ala., is the only store in the U.S. that sells items travelers left behind.

(

Melanie Peeples

)

It is a rare exception for something lost to make it back to its owner, but Unclaimed Baggage CEO, Bryan Owens, said it has happened.

A man from Atlanta showed up for the annual ski sale (an event so exciting people camp out in the parking lot in order to be first ones inside the door) and he purchased a pair of ski boots for his fiancée. And when he got them home to her, she looked inside and there was her name. She had previously lost them on a ski trip.

Sometimes the shipping containers hold the biggest surprises. Owens remembers peeling back the packing paper of one such container.

"And there was an item on a device inside of there that was, like, suspended by these rubber grommets. So it couldn't touch anything. And it had a placard on it and — I promise you — it said, 'Handle with extreme caution. I'm worth my weight in gold.'"

It turns out it was a guidance system for a fighter plane. The F-14 Tomcat.

"And it was the story that was going around, the military was the Iranians stole it. It actually was not the Iranians – it was sitting in our warehouse in Scottsboro, Alabama."

Owens said they gave that one back to the Navy. And when a camera from a space shuttle showed up, they knew where to find NASA.

Unclaimed Baggage has had so many odd things show up — a centuries-old violin that may have been made by a student of Antonio Stradivari, ancient Egyptian artifacts, and a suit of armor — they've created a museum. There's even a giant puppet named Hoggle, from the movie Labyrinth, that Jim Henson told them they could keep.

Ben Foster of Chattanooga, Tenn., (left) decides what he thinks about the tweed coat his friend Josh Elliott of Atlanta shows him. Elliott had heard about the Unclaimed Baggage store from a friend and was amazed by how organized it is.

(

Melanie Peeples

)

Most people, though, are drawn here by the easy lure of discount high-end goods: a Louis Vuitton purse, Prada shoes or the hundreds of North Face jackets. Josh Elliott, who lives in Atlanta, made the drive over with a friend. "We found several coats, like bigger coats. He's about to go to Germany. So we're looking for something particularly warm and fluffy."

They aren't disappointed. There are several coats that look like they're fit for an Arctic exploration. It's Elliott's first time here, and he is impressed by how organized it all is.

"This is a lot better than Goodwill," he said.

That's because people donate things they no longer want to Goodwill. Items at Unclaimed Baggage are things people liked so much, they took them on a trip with them.

In fact, a lot of the clothes here still have new tags on them since many people like to go shopping for a new wardrobe before they travel. Or, they shop on vacation. Brands like Rolex and Chanel regularly pass through Unclaimed Baggage. There's a little bit of Hollywood here, too. Aside from the Jim Henson puppet, there's a dress here believed to have once belonged to Marie Osmond. Not to mention, one of this year's Best Director Academy Award winners, Daniel Scheinert, gave his acceptance speech in a tuxedo bought right here.

But it's not just about consumption, reminds owner Bryan Owens.

"It's really like an archaeological dig. You open a bag and you can know what kind of fashions people are wearing, even things like cosmetics or technology, things that they're carrying with them. It really is a cross-section of what's going on in America, and really across the world because the airlines are global."

There is also the plain and simple joy of just imagining the stories behind these items. Was the owner of that pole vaulting pole an Olympian? Did she travel with a spare? I hope the owner of that wedding dress in the formal wear department got lost on the way home from the wedding.

These things will remain a mystery but some are downright mystical. How is it that so many walking aids get left on a plane? Was the traveler cured mid-flight? There's a sizable amount of canes and crutches in a section some employees have taken to calling the "Miraculous Recovery Department."

And let's talk about the jewelry. Judging from the back counter, a lot more MEN'S than WOMEN'S wedding rings seem to go missing. But that's a whole different kind of story.

Robert Mueller, the ex-FBI director and former special counsel who led the high-profile investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump, died Friday at 81.

"With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away" on Friday night, his family said in a statement Saturday shared with NPR. "His family asks that their privacy be respected."

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

Copyright 2026 NPR

At the Koreatown Senior and Community Center, people were used to seeing Keum-soon Lee arrive early. When she didn’t show up for the 11 a.m. group harmonica class at the center last Friday, people took notice. 

“She would always be there first,” said conductor Eun-young Kim. “If she couldn’t come, she would tell me ahead of time. This time, I didn’t receive any messages from her. I thought, something isn’t right.”

Kim tried calling and sending messages. She didn’t get a response.

Members of the center later learned that Lee, 73, was critically injured in a hit-and-run crash while biking home in Koreatown after attending early morning prayer at her church. She died in a hospital March 13 from her injuries, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

“I was shocked,” said Jin-soon Baek, who has played with Lee for years. “We’ve been friends for a long time. We ate together, practiced together. She was like a sibling to me.

“She was so hardworking. Always the first one there to sign in for class. She’d walk ahead of me and I’d follow behind. That’s how it always was.”

Baek, who is in her 80s, said the two also shared something more personal: Both had cancer.

“I had cancer years ago, and she was going through treatment recently,” Baek said. “We understood each other.”

In January, Lee played with the harmonica ensemble at an LA Kings game. Lee spoke with a journalist about undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, and what the group meant to her. 

“I think I’ve almost fully recovered,” Lee told journalist Chase Karng at the hockey game. “Even while receiving chemotherapy, I felt encouraged when I heard that I could perform here.”

At the Koreatown Senior and Community Center, people were used to seeing Keum-soon Lee arrive early. When she didn’t show up for the 11 a.m. group harmonica class at the center last Friday, people took notice.

Lee was born in 1952 in South Korea and immigrated to the United States in 1998. She was an elder at Saehan Presbyterian Church in Pico Union and is survived by her husband, Sang-rae Lee, and son, Young-jo Lee.

The senior center, where Lee was a fixture and known as a reliable friend, has designated March 20 as a day of mourning.

On Friday, Lee’s church held a funeral service, where members of the harmonica ensemble performed the hymn, “Nearer My God to Thee,” in her memory.

“I usually don’t attend funeral services, but I had to come for hers,” said Alice Kim. “Whenever I came to church, I would see her watering the grass, bent over, and she would smile and say, ‘You’re here, Alice,’ and hand me the Sunday bulletin.”

In her eulogy, elder Gyu-sook Lee said the sudden loss has hit the congregation hard.

“She always greeted everyone with a warm smile,” she said. “She was the kind of person who always stepped forward first to do the hard work that no one else wanted to do. And when she took something on, she saw it through to the end.”

At the Koreatown Senior and Community Center, people were used to seeing Keum-soon Lee arrive early. When she didn’t show up for the 11 a.m. group harmonica class at the center last Friday, people took notice.

“She still had so many years ahead of her,” Baek said. “She was younger than us. Full of hope. It feels like it should have been me instead.”

According to police, Lee was riding through a crosswalk when a white Dodge Ram truck turning right struck her around 6:40 a.m. near Olympic Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. The driver briefly stopped, then drove away, authorities said.

Investigators found the truck and are looking into whether the driver was impaired on drugs or alcohol. The truck was seized and there was no information about the driver.

Kim, the conductor, said Lee was the first person to reach out to her when she started to lead the ensemble in September. 

“She sent me a message saying thank you for coming,” Kim said. “She was such a special person to me.” 

At Friday’s service, speaker after speaker described Lee as someone who was a light in every community she was part of. 

“The way she served the church behind the scenes became a lesson in faith for all of us. There isn’t a single part of this church that hasn’t felt her touch. Her warmth, her love, her dedication — I can still feel it,” Gyu-sook Lee said.

When Gilbert Lindsay became the first Black person elected to Los Angeles City Council in 1963, it gave the residents of the predominantly Black District 9 someone who understood the challenges they faced living in South Central. 

This area was the center of Black political power in LA because it was one of the few places in the city Black people were allowed to live and thrive due, in part, to housing restrictions. For the next 63 years, voters in this district — which includes historic South Central, Exposition Park and a small portion of downtown Los Angeles — consecutively chose a Black representative. 

That will end with Curren D. Price Jr., the current District 9 councilmember who can’t run again due to term limits. 

Twelve candidates announced campaigns in February to replace Price. Of them, six candidates have qualified to be on the June 2 primary election ballot, none of whom are Black. They include: Estuardo Mazariegos, Elmer Roldan, Jorge Hernandez Rosas, Jorge Nuño, Martha Sánchez and Jose Ugarte. 

The list is a reflection of the demographic shift of the area, but candidates also told The LA Local that it shows the strength of the district’s Black-Latino political coalition. And with the civil rights gains since the 1960s, while some locals are concerned that issues facing Black voters won’t get the attention they need, others who live in the district said they’re less concerned with what their representative looks like. Instead, they said they want someone who listens and gets things done. 

“As long as you do good in the community, we’re going to be happy,” said Dennis Anya, who works on Central Avenue and has lived in the district for nearly 40 years.

What the demographic shifts in District 9 mean for the June election

The upcoming election comes as the demographics have changed in District 9 and South LA. The Black population in South Los Angeles was 81% in 1965, according to a special census survey from November 1965 of South and East LA. 

As of 2021, District 9, specifically, is about 78% Latino and 13% Black, according to LA City Council population demographic data taken that year as part of a redistricting effort. 

Officials have predicted the district’s shift for years. Former City Councilmembers Kevin De León and Nury Martinez discussed the district’s future in the leaked 2021 audio — checkered with racist remarks — that the LA Times reported in 2022.“This will be [Price’s] last four years,” De Leon said at one point in the conversation, the transcript of which the LA Times published in full. “That eventually becomes a Latino seat.” 

Erin Aubry Kaplan, a writer and columnist who traces her family’s roots to South Central, told The LA Local that because District 9 has historically voted for a Black candidate, there is some anxiety amongst Black voters about losing Black representation in Los Angeles. 

“I would hope that whoever wins, will carry the interest of Black folk forward,” she said.

Manuel Pastor, a USC professor and co-author of “South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Community in South LA,” told The LA Local that traditionally, voters are older. While District 9 is now home to a younger, immigrant community, they may not vote at the same rate as older generations, and undocumented residents are ineligible to vote.  

Pastor said it’s likely for this reason that the current District 9 candidates are not emphasizing being Latino but are modeling their campaigns after other city leaders and focusing on Black-Latino solidarity. 

“Just because the demographics have changed, doesn’t mean that the voting population has changed,” Pastor said.  

Here’s what the candidates say about the transformation of District 9

Chris Martin, one of the two Black candidates who campaigned for the seat but did not qualify for the ballot, said he believes the city’s Black elected officials should have supported Black candidates in the race. Martin said he will challenge the city clerk’s decision on his nomination petition in court. 

“The story of Black political power in the city of Los Angeles is dying,” Martin said. “I felt like I had a good chance of keeping it alive.” 

When Gilbert Lindsay became the first Black person elected to Los Angeles City Council in 1963, it gave the residents of the predominantly Black District 9 someone who understood the challenges they faced living in South Central.

Michelle Washington, the other Black candidate who also did not qualify, did not respond to a request for comment.Price, the current District 9 councilmember, endorsed his deputy Jose Ugarte in the race and wrote in a statement that this election is about solidarity. 

“As a Black man who has served a majority-Latino district, I know that progress in South Central has always come from Black and Brown families moving forward together,” Price wrote. “We’ve had to fight harder for housing, safety, opportunity and the basic investments every neighborhood deserves. And when we’ve made gains, it’s because we stood united.”  

Five of the six candidates who qualified for the ballot told The LA Local that not having a Black candidate on the ballot doesn’t diminish the place of the district’s Black community. (Candidate Jorge Hernandez Rosas did not return requests for comment.) 

“It has always been a Black community and will always be a Black community. This isn’t about a passing of the baton or one community taking over another. It’s about building a solidarity movement,” Estuardo Mazariegos said. 

Elmer Roldan, who carries endorsements from LA Mayor Karen Bass and City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, said the district needs a councilmember who won’t leave anyone behind.“We have to avoid at all costs contributing to Black erasure and Black displacement,” Roldan said.

Ugarte said that the major quality of life problems — like dirty streets and broken street lights — affecting the neighborhood’s Black and brown communities haven’t changed since he was a child living in the district. 

“The same issues are still here,” he said. 

Here’s what happens next

If you haven’t registered to vote and you want to receive a vote-by-mail ballot, you must register to vote by May 18.

Results from the primary election will be certified by July 2. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two candidates will move on to the general election on Nov. 3, according to the City Clerk’s website. 

The winner of District 9 will begin a four-year term Dec. 14.

The L.A. County Medical Examiner has released the cause of death for Emily Beutner, the daughter of former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner.

The 22-year-old died from the effects of a combination of drugs, including two linked to the opioid known as kratom — mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine — according to the statement released by the medical examiner Friday.

A county health official told our partner CBS L.A. that kratom products are sometimes sold as natural remedies but are illegal and unsafe.

The other two substances cited as causes of death were quetiapine and mirtazapine — the former is an antipsychotic medication, and the latter is used to treat depression, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The former Loyola Marymount University student was found alone and suffering from medical distress by L.A. County Fire Department personnel shortly after midnight in a field by a highway in Palmdale on Jan. 6. She was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead soon after.

After his daughter's death, Beutner dropped out of the L.A. mayoral race.

The Medical Examiner said the manner of death was ruled a suicide.

Resources

If You Need Immediate Help

• If you or someone you know is in crisis and need immediate help, call the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or go here for online chat.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis, you can dial the mental health lifeline at 988.

Additional resources