Chesterfield food truck owner targeted after false tie to Charlie Kirk post

Driving the news: Kristen Bortone, owner of Kristen's Kitchen Food Truck, tells Axios that the case of mistaken identity started Monday afternoon after a Facebook page linked to a Wisconsin-based conservative podcast posted about a "Kristin."

• The page has been sharing screenshots of people it says are celebrating Kirk's death.
• A commenter tagged Bortone's business, triggering a wave of threats in her Facebook messages and one-star Google reviews.
• One screenshotted direct message she shared with Axios said, "you and your business will suffer for your comments."

Zoom in: "To have somebody just not pay attention and almost ruin my life has been very stressful," says Bortone, who opened her truck in 2021.

• Bortone tells Axios it's been especially difficult because she and her husband, Robert, have been "working ourselves to the bone" trying to open their first brick-and-mortar restaurant in Chester by early November.

The latest: When Bortone shared in a Chesterfield Facebook group that she'd been falsely accused, she says the community immediately rallied around her.

• People started giving her five-star Google reviews and wrote in the comments that they've begun reporting the negative ones.
• Bortone says others who had initially targeted her reached out to apologize, deleted their negative comments and publicly asked others to do the same.

What they're saying: "I've cried more happy tears in the past 24 hours than I have sad," she says, tearing up. "I am blessed with all the people that have come to my back — people that don't even know me."

• "And now people want to come try my food."