Bad Will Over Goodwill

I go away for 24 hours, and look what happens:  I miss the biggest bonehead story of the year.

In case you missed it:

Tina Dragone owns a women’s clothing store in Westport.  Not just any women’s store, mind you, but an “upscale, fine” one.  It is located at 1687 Post Road East, near an animal hospital and takeout Chinese place.

Or, to be more precise:  several hundred yards, and across the street, from Goodwill.

Goodwill — which has been in Westport 50 years, or in other words, decades longer than Tina Dragone — wants to move a few shopping cart lengths down the road, to the site of the currently closed Peppermill.

Tina Dragone freaked out.

Last night she told the Planning and Zoning Commission that there were “32 arrests” there.  She complained about larcenies, shopliftings, and stolen handbags.  (Goodwill’s attorney replied that there were 7 police calls this year — some from people locked out of their cars.)

She said that Goodwill hires “ex-convicts.”

She added, “to have this kind of element coming into our neighborhood is ludicrous.”

And, she said — using perhaps the royal pronoun — “we are really afraid.”

On WestportNow.com, Westporters responded in force.   They slammed Tina Dragone — the heartless human being, not the store — for everything from mischaracterizing the people who shop at Goodwill, to the fact that “given the scope of FBI investigations,” Tina’s own customers may actually be the spouses of “future cons.”

I’m sorry I missed today’s brouhaha.  But “06880” readers are invited to chime in.

Some of you crucified Lynsey Addario for winning a MacArthur genius grant and photographing Afghan women.

There’s no telling what you’ll do to this poor, fearful women’s clothing store owner.