Down But Not Out

By Lloyd Garrison

All was calm in Norfolk as darkness fell on Saturday, Dec. 17, exactly one week before Christmas. The town’s village green was bathed in the glow of multicolored tree lights. Many Norfolkians were home decorating their own trees in advance of the holidays.

          Just before midnight, the stillness was broken by wailing sirens from state police cruisers and fire engines responding to the random mayhem wrought by two 19-year-olds, Mathew Carey of Torrington and Kyle Majewski of Sandisfield, Mass.

          Before the night was over, the two were in police custody and faced multiple charges of arson, burglary, larceny and criminal trespass. One alleged outcome of their alcohol and drug-fueled crime spree was setting the fire that totally consumed the Norfolk Curling Club, a landmark spanning three generations.

          Majewski made the following entry on his Facebook page at 7:01 p.m., “Time to make new friends.” He then drove a Subaru Impreza to pick up Carey in Torrington. They had known each other since grade school. Majewski grew up in Colebrook, was once employed at Infinity Hall and worked as a machinist at Alcoa Howmet in Winsted. Carey was a graduate of Northwestern Regional High School and was a member of the United States Army Reserves. They had known each other for more than a decade.

          Their evening began innocently enough. According to state police, they visited Farmington’s Westfarms Mall, left at 9:30 p.m. and stopped at a liquor store where a “stranger” was persuaded to buy them two cans of Four Loko. Often called “binge-in-a-can,” Four Loko is a fruit-flavored malt beverage that has up to 12 percent alcohol content. The two also obtained two 40-ounce containers of Miller High Life. Carey told police that once in Winsted, they stopped at a gas station where Majewski bought one bag of K2, a synthetic marijuana substitute. They then headed up the hill to Norfolk.

          Majewski declined to give police a written statement. According to a police affidavit that includes remarks by Carey, who denied being involved in any wrong doing, the first stop in Norfolk was at an unoccupied red saltbox at 292 Wheeler Road. The classic eighteenth century dwelling belongs to Paul Provost, who was in New York at the time.

           Carey’s recollections to police are notably vague on some details, but the circumstantial evidence is not. A detached garage on the property with a small empty apartment was broken into, several windows were smashed and an attempt was made to set fire to the oak floor.

           The most serious damage on the property was to the red saltbox. A door was kicked in and a fire was set in several mattresses on the second floor. This set off a security alarm that alerted the State Police B Barracks in Canaan and Norfolk’s Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD).       

           Carey and Majewski were nowhere in sight when NVFD firemen arrived in time to douse the flames. They were joined by engines from New Marlborough, Colebrook, Winsted, Winchester and North Canaan. The crews were coiling their hoses when a state trooper at the site heard a call shortly after 1:00 a.m. reporting a fire in progress at the Curling Club. NVFD firemen and others who had responded at Wheeler Road quickly boarded their trucks and raced to the club, too late to avert the building’s total loss. About all they could do was dampen down the flames and watch the fire burn out.

          Jon Barbagallo, a fireman and longtime club member, donned his protective gear and attempted to rescue some of the curling stones that were cut from Scotch granite and worth thousands of dollars. He got close, but soon heard a series of percussive “pops” as one after another, the red hot stones exploded under a shower of cold water pouring down from an overhead ladder truck.

           Police had not heard the last of Majewski and Carey. Shortly before the curling club fire was detected, a renter in a house owned by Mariana Childs at 206 Westside Road called 911 to say that two intruders had entered the basement, but fled after she shouted at them to get out.

           The next call to 911 was at 1:30 a.m., from none other than Majewski himself. He told the dispatcher he needed assistance after his car swerved off Mountain Road to avoid a deer. Police arrived to find the car in a ditch and two slightly injured men standing nearby. A Curling Club trophy plaque was found leaning up against a tree 50 feet away. Police claim that a search inside the car revealed two fire extinguishers, an unopened envelope with a Wheeler Road address, plus several street signs and mailboxes taken from the vicinity of the curling club.

          With daylight, police discovered a trail of broken mailboxes and street signs from Westside, Mountain Road, Lovers Lane, Doolittle Drive and Wheeler Road. Police also came across a badly damaged mini-excavater on Wheeler Road that the town had rented to deal with erosion following Hurricane Irene. The windows of the enclosed cab had been smashed, all hydraulic hose lines were severed and there was evidence someone had tried to set fire to the driver’s seat cushion.

          John Allyn, foreman of the town’s road crew, has counted four missing stop signs and nine street signs that he says will cost the town $1,700 to replace. Repairs to the excavator are estimated at $2,800.

          Bail has been set at $205,000 for Carey and $230,000 for Majewski. Both remain in custody. A pre-trial hearing is set for Feb. 7.