diff --git a/lib/redistat/connection.rb b/lib/redistat/connection.rb
index 76a04a0..23d9141 100644
--- a/lib/redistat/connection.rb
+++ b/lib/redistat/connection.rb
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ module Redistat
       end
       
       def create(options = {})
+        #TODO clean/remove all ref-less connections
         ref = options.delete(:ref) || :default
         options.reverse_merge!(default_options)
         conn = (connections[connection_id(options)] ||= connection(options))
@@ -26,15 +27,11 @@ module Redistat
       end
       
       def connections
-        threaded[:connections] ||= {}
+        @connections ||= {}
       end
       
       def references
-        threaded[:references] ||= {}
-      end
-      
-      def threaded
-        Thread.current[:redistat] ||= {}
+        @references ||= {}
       end
       
       private
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index bf5d986..21210e4 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -8,5 +8,5 @@ require 'rspec'
 require 'rspec/autorun'
 
 # use the test Redistat instance
-Redistat.connect(:port => 8379, :db => 15)
+Redistat.connect(:port => 8379, :db => 15, :thread_safe => true)
 Redistat.redis.flushdb
diff --git a/spec/thread_safety_spec.rb b/spec/thread_safety_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec2b62d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/thread_safety_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+require "spec_helper"
+
+describe "Thread-Safety" do
+  include Redistat::Database
+  
+  before(:each) do
+    db.flushdb
+  end
+  
+  #TODO should have more comprehensive thread-safe tests
+  
+  it "should incr in multiple threads" do
+    threads = []
+    50.times do
+      threads << Thread.new {
+        db.incr("spec:incr")
+      }
+    end
+    threads.each { |t| t.join }
+    db.get("spec:incr").should == "50"
+  end
+  
+  it "should store event in multiple threads" do
+    class ThreadSafetySpec
+      include Redistat::Model
+    end
+    threads = []
+    50.times do
+      threads << Thread.new {
+        ThreadSafetySpec.store("spec:threadsafe", {:count => 1, :rand => rand(5)})
+      }
+    end
+    threads.each { |t| t.join }
+    result = ThreadSafetySpec.fetch("spec:threadsafe", 5.hours.ago, 5.hours.from_now)
+    result.total[:count].should == 50
+    result.total[:rand].should <= 250
+  end
+  
+end
\ No newline at end of file