Whittle Toy Motion Hearing

(NEW LONDON)--  A motion hearing is tomorrow (TU) in a civil case involving a Northeast Missouri toy and puzzle company. Mercantile Bank of Louisiana won a settlement last year against Whittle Toy Company and is now asking for information about the firm’s assets. A judge last fall ordered Whittle and owner Mike Whitworth to pay more than one million dollars in principal and interest on two loans that the bank says were not repaid. Whittle was founded in a suburban St. Louis garage and opened a 10-thousand-square-foot operation in a former glove factory in Louisiana in March 2005.   Four years later, it found larger quarters at a vacant factory in New London. At one time, it had a retail outlet in downtown Hannibal. The company produced toy trains and puzzles, but has had multiple legal problems in the last two years.