Backpacks and Pressure Cookers: "Dangerous Search" Caused 6 Feds to Show Up at Woman's House
Six men from a joint terrorism task forced showed up on Michelle Catalano's front door Wednesday after suspicious searches were conducted from her home computer. Among the search terms were "pressure cooker" and "backpack."
Its what Catalano says was a complete coincidence her household was flagged as holding a possible terrorist. But Catalano claims that she didn't even know what she was doing, she was simply interested in purchasing a pressure cooker. The problem came when her husband, at the same time, so happened to be scoping Google for a backpack. The couple also has a son. His combined reading interest and his parents two searches was enough for a terrorist squad to pay Catalano a visit.
"Most of it was innocent enough. I had researched pressure cookers. My husband was looking for a backpack. And maybe in another time those two things together would have seemed innocuous, but we are in "these times" now," said Catalano who is a freelance writer and former Forbes contributor. Old searches from her husband previous job were also considered.
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Written in a blog posted on Medium.com, Catalano goes on to state that the six men, armed with guns, arrived in 3 black SUV's at her home while she was at work. Her husband, who was home at the time, greeted the men.
With the permission of her husband, the men search the home and asked multiple questions that included why her husband had made trips to South Korea and where his parents were from.
"They mentioned that they do this about 100 times a week. And that 99 of those visits turn out to be nothing. I don't know what happens on the other 1% of visits and I'm not sure I want to know what my neighbors are up to," Catalano said.
The search took 45 minutes but left Catalano feeling uncomfortable for days.
"Mostly I felt a great sense of anxiety. This is where we are at. Where you have no expectation of privacy," she said. "I'm scared. And not of the right things."
