A husband and wife found out that typing a few ordinary words into Google could actually get you flagged and lead to a police visit.
There are some things you could search on Google that might cause your IP address to get flagged, but I’m not testing it myself!
Luckily, a woman did this already, and she found out that if you enter four specific words in a row on the search engine, there’s a high chance the cops might show up at your door.
Now, I get it—you’re probably thinking about what these words could be. I was curious too. You might be guessing, but I doubt you’ll figure it out.
It’s not anything inappropriate, and it’s not related to kids, if that helps. The whole situation happened in Long Island, New York, back in 2013, and when Michele Catalano did her search, the reaction she and her husband got was shocking.
Catalano decided to share her story on her blog, and it’s pretty funny.
She wrote:Â “Googling of certain things was creating a perfect storm of terrorism profiling.”.
Her husband had searched these terms two days apart on his work laptop. With everything that had happened in New York a decade before, it set off alarms at his workplace.
The IT department flagged the activity, and they decided to contact the Suffolk County Police Department to report the suspicious searches.
A large police presence quickly arrived at their home, looking for any signs of terrorist activity.
You might be wondering what exactly they searched. As I mentioned, the searches were done just a few days apart.
They searched separately for ‘pressure cooker’ and ‘backpacks,’ which made someone nervous.
They probably thought they were putting together a dangerous combination.
So, if you don’t want the police knocking at your door, maybe avoid searching for ‘pressure cooker bomb’ alongside ‘backpack.’
It seems there might have been some tension between the employee and his previous workplace, as Suffolk County police shared a statement after the incident.
It read:Â “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.”.
She shared on her blog:Â “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.”.
So, remember, be careful with your Google searches!
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