Jul 27, 2016 10:37 AM

Fliers encouraging people to join the Ku Klux Klan were anonymously delivered over the weekend to homes in several communities in western Southampton Town, including Westhampton Beach and Quogue villages.

Village authorities confirmed this week that the recruitment fliers were found in driveways, inside bags containing rocks to help weigh them down, on both Saturday and Sunday. Southampton Town Police did not return calls this week asking if the fliers were also found in its jurisdiction, though sources say similar materials were discovered in the hamlet of Westhampton and the Village of West Hampton Dunes.

In a press release issued on Monday, Westhampton Beach Village Police said two people, both of whom live on Beach Lane, contacted them after receiving the fliers. On Tuesday, Quogue Village Police reported that an officer on routine patrol spotted five of the fliers left in the driveways of homes on Old Country Road.

No other reports have been filed in either village, though those receiving the fliers might not have called police since, technically, such action is protected under freedom of speech.

The flier criticizes the Black Lives Matter movement, and then invites people to join the KKK. It also includes a North Carolina phone number, the hotline for the Loyal White Knights of the KKK.

Alison Akant, a 60-year-old resident of Manhattan who visits Westhampton Beach in the summer, said someone delivered one of the fliers in her driveway around noon on Sunday. She was one of the two village residents to file a report with police.

“We’re very upset,” Ms. Akant said. “People are concerned. I wonder what the community is going to do and how they are going to react.”

In a prepared release, Westhampton Beach Village Police note that the placing of fliers at the end of driveways is not a crime, regardless of the message contained within. “However,” the released continues, “the throwing of bags on private property can be portrayed as littering in the village code. The Westhampton Beach detectives are investigating these incidents.”

They have also forwarded a copy of the flier to the Suffolk County Police Hate Crimes Unit.

The recent KKK recruitment effort is not the first of its kind targeting Southampton Town. Similar fliers were found on at least two different occasions last year in Hampton Bays, and that effort was eventually linked by authorities to Douglas Munker, a self-described klansman who lives in the hamlet. Those fliers typically contained anti-gay and anti-minority messages, and also encouraged interested parties to join the KKK movement.

Mr. Munker was arrested after he was caught posting KKK recruitment fliers containing anti-immigration and anti-gay messages near an ATM at the Capital One Bank in his hometown. He later pleaded guilty to littering after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors.

Staff writer Greg Wehner contributed to this story.