HARTFORD -- For 23 years the Whalers represented the city of Hartford and left behind a strong fan base.
So when a mystery Zamboni bearing the “Hartford Whalers” name popped up in scrapyard - so did a lot of questions.
Many on Twitter wondering if the Zamboni was an official part of Whalers history and how it ended up at the City Auto Scrapyard in Hartford.
We can finally say the case is closed because after some digging, FOX61 knows exactly where the Zamboni came from.
“I was at a rink in Long Island, NY and a customer had this machine sitting in their backyard under a tarp and I asked them what is was, he said it was a ‘63 Zamboni and we don’t want it and he gave it to me,” Paul Lafleur said.
Lafleur is the former owner of the Zamboni and said he first bought it from Long Island, NY to his Connecticut auto shop -L&L Equipment in Bloomfield.
Not long after, he moved it to his former Windsor home along Poquonock Avenue and decorated it every holiday season.
“But it had nothing to do with the Whalers, we were just Whaler fans,” Lafleur said.
Now the lawn lays empty, but neighbors said everyone in the area knew about the famous machine.
“It was a fixture for the town, we used it as a landmark to tell people where our house was,” neighbor Jaime House said.
Employees at the scrapyard said they’ve already had a few offers from Whaler Fans.