Day after move, Lowell clothing store is cleaned out

LOWELL — Heather Claflin pushed open the door to the retailer clothier Gear Up in Lower Centralville yesterday and ran out screaming.

She ran all the way to the police precinct up the street.

“Everything was gone. She was hysterical,” said her fiance, Derrick Coy.

The store at 374 Bridge St. was robbed and an estimated $15,000 to $16,000 in merchandise methodically cleaned out overnight, Coy said.

The hangers were neatly piled and the shoes boxes emptied, leaving behind the tissue paper, said Coy’s mother, Natalie Coy.

Coy and Claflin opened their store on Concord Street in Lower Belvidere about three months ago but moved to 374 Bridge St. Wednesday to take advantage of the heavy foot traffic among young people.

The telephone line wasn’t connected so the security alarm wasn’t activated when they closed at 9 p.m. Thursday. They expect to be out of business a couple of weeks while waiting for insurance money.

Coy’s a 1995 Lowell High School graduate who earned a degree in sociology from Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Conn. and is finishing a master’s degree in community counseling from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut.

“I came back because I wanted to offer something to the kids I didn’t have,” Coy said.

Now somebody else has his property.