Open Letter to Westport: Stop Stealing From Thy Neighbors

Dear Westporters,

Since you're from here, you're probably accustomed to the fact that there are "honor system" stands spread across the town.

Most of them sell eggs and vegetables and even firewood, and all have the same money bucket on the side. Normally, for the most part, nobody would dare to steal from the change bin; it's called trust and being a good neighbor, but sometimes there are some rotten eggs out there (no pun intended) that ruin it for everyone else.

Over on Adamsville Road, there was an incident that occurred earlier on in the day on Monday where a thief bandit not only took eggs without paying but took the entire cooler:

"Today the cooler my son uses to sell his eggs was taken from our farm on Adamsville Road," Claudine L'Heureux-Lewis wrote on Facebook. "I did not put the sign out due to the high winds, so I believe someone thought it was free. If you have taken the cooler, could you kindly return it? Thank you!"

Claudine and her family raise chickens and grass-fed Black Angus cows over at the Lewis Family Farm.

I'm not entirely convinced that everyone is aware of how time-consuming it is to raise chickens. Then it's a matter of collecting once a day and cleaning out the coop once a week. It's work that someone puts in to give back to anyone searching for farm-fresh eggs. Personally, I haven't had to do this, but know plenty of locals who do and respect the hell out of them for doing so.

Not everyone can afford to have cameras watching their farm stands, especially if it's just a small cooler with eggs. Here's someone who's just trying to make a few bucks on the side, nothing that's going to make anyone rich, and their day gets turned upside down because of one individual who had to break the honor code.

Disgust is just the start of how I feel towards whoever had the indecency to rob from someone.

At this point, my only hope is that whoever took the cooler is reading this and returns it to the Adamsville residence. It wasn't "free" to take nor yours in the first place. Make things better and do the right thing instead of stooping as low as to steal from a young man.

Shame on you. If there was a financial problem where you couldn't afford the eggs, well, then perhaps you could have at least knocked on the door and asked nicely. From my experience growing up in a town where everybody knows everybody, kindness is not as rare as you might think and that's all I have to say about that.

Love,

Gazelle