A woman has revealed the four words you should avoid Googling to ensure the police don’t make an unannounced visit to your home.
Michele Catalano and her husband, from Long Island, New York, accidentally found themselves in hot water when several black SUVs pulled up at the couple’s house.
Michele, a freelance writer, wanted to order herself a pressure cooker while her husband was looking to buy a new rucksack.
Just prior to quitting his job her husband typed in keywords for both items and as a result, IT flagged these searches.
The search items were reported to the local Suffolk County Police Department and as a result, the Suffolk County police showed up to investigate.
Catalano said on her blog: “Googling of certain things was creating a perfect storm of terrorism profiling.”
So, if you don’t want the police to unexpectedly knock on your door, don’t search for the four words – ‘pressure cooker bomb’ along with the word ‘backpack’.
Describing the ordeal in her blog Michael said her husband “saw three black SUVs in front of our house; two at the curb in front and one pulled up behind my husband’s Jeep in the driveway, as if to block him from leaving.”
Officers questioned Michele’s husband, and searched the house and the garage.
“Forty-five minutes later, they shook my husband’s hand and left. That’s when he called me and relayed the story”, added Michele.
Michele wrote on her blog: “Mostly I felt a great sense of anxiety. This is where we are at. Where you have no expectation of privacy. Where trying to learn how to cook some lentils could possibly land you on a watch list.”
She jokingly added: “All I know is if I’m going to buy a pressure cooker in the near future, I’m not doing it online. I’m scared. And not the right things.”
In a statement, authorities said: “Suffolk County Criminal Intelligence detectives received a tip from a Bay Shore-based computer company regarding suspicious computer searches conducted by a recently released employee.”
