NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — A police investigation has begun to track down the person responsible for sending threatening notes to several New Britain businesses. The businesses are believed to have been targeted for their support of Ukrainian-Americans.
Right now little is known about who wrote the notes. They were written in Polish, scrawled in marker on the back of a Christmas card, without an envelope and postmarked out of Hartford on March 8th.
On Friday, New Britain Police met with businesses that received threatening notes to take police reports.
The first note was sent to the law office of Adrian Baron, who started his pro bono work helping a Ukrainian-American visit his dying mother.
“He asked me to do a power of attorney for him and then a will because he wasn’t sure he would make it back,” said Baron.
A second note showed up at Belvedere Cafe, just days after hosting a Ukrainian fundraiser attended by Sen. Richard Blumenthal. The note threatened to burn the building down. Matt Konferowicz is the owner’s husband.
“ I would say that love always trumps hate and I hope his heart will heal,” he said.
Both businesses are among more than 100 establishments that are a storied part of New Britain’s Little Poland district which has been renamed Little Ukraine for the month of March.
“We have to realize, Ukrainians are fighting not only for their freedom. They are fighting for the freedom of all of Europe and maybe even the world,” said Konferowicz.
The war hit close to home for these Polish-Americans, who originally settled in New Britain after fleeing Poland decades ago when their homeland was threatened by soviet Russia.
“Ukraine is right on the border. A lot of our clients and a lot of the people who shop in little Poland are Ukrainian. There’s a Ukrainian credit union on our street so there are our neighbors and our friends,” said Baron.
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FOX61 was able to confirm that the police are also investigating notes sent to two additional New Britain Businesses for a total of four notes. We are still working to gather details about those additional notes.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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