A downtown gift shop closed abruptly this week just when most small businesses were gearing up for the start of the Christmas shopping season.

Uniquely Leo’s was closed Thursday morning, and the windows were covered in paper. A note on the door thanked customers but said the circumstances were beyond the owner’s control and “wrought with wickedness.”

The store’s Facebook page and Twitter account showed posts as recently as Tuesday that indicated nothing amiss. But on Thursday, both social media pages had a link to an electronic version of the same note posted on the door of the business.

A phone message left at owner Marcy Miller’s home number was not returned Friday.

The business, which was located at 120 N. Main St., opened in October 2006 in a nearby building at 165 N. Main St. It moved in September 2010.

The new location is owned by Councilman Mike Duman, who said Friday he and other City Council members received a message from city Chief of Staff Debbie George about the situation.

They were told the store was closing because of an “outstanding legal dispute” between Miller and the store’s former landlord, Michael Haas, Duman said. The message referenced trouble with the lease at the former location.

“Because of this, the store’s inventory must be liquidated,” Duman said the message read.

A message left at a number listed for Haas was not returned Friday.