Kitchen Table Games, located in Pinellas Park, Florida, saw its owner, Galen Trent Wood, arrested on Thursday for refusing to close his store. According to the police, officers had visited the store no less than five times and had noted the store was open and that customers were interacting with employees. Each time the police warned the owner, but Wood allegedly argued with them, and Wood claimed online that the store had only been open for curbside pickup. However, the report coming from the police seems to indicate that wasn’t the case, at least initially.
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Wood has since been released on bail and is continuing to argue that the arrest was unfair, stating that the police didn’t first obtain a court order to shut down the business. While some comments on the store’s Facebook page have been supportive, quite a few have also been negative, calling out the store and Wood for staying open when everyone else has been forced to do their part by socially isolating at home.
There’s no real argument that a tabletop game store is an essential business, though it remains to be seen if Wood’s claim that a court order was required for the police to act is accurate. It’s not the only gaming store to stir up controversy by staying open during the coronavirus, though even GameStop shuttered due to COVID-19 long before Wood’s store was forced to.
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Source: Tampa Bay Times, Kitchen Table Games
