Woman issues warning after police turned up at her house because she Googled four words

A woman has revealed the four words you should avoid Googling to ensure the police don’t make a surprise visit to your home.

Michele Catalano and her husband, from Long Island, New York, were shopping for everyday household items in 2013 when they unexpectedly ran into trouble.

Recounting the events that followed the incident, she wrote in her blog at the time: “Googling certain things created a perfect storm of terrorist profiling.”

Michele, a freelance writer, wanted to order a pressure cooker for herself while her husband wanted to buy a new backpack.

This led to them separately searching online for the items they both wanted – an exercise that would not normally cause alarm to the police.

However, her husband typed keywords for both items from his work computer two days later, just before quitting his job.

IT staff flagged the searches, and his former employer reported it to the local Suffolk County police.

This was brought up by staff in response to the actions of the people allegedly responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings earlier that year.

In the incident, which occurred during the annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, two individuals planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs that detonated 14 seconds and 210 meters apart near the race finish line.

Three people were killed and hundreds were injured in the attack, including 17 who lost their limbs.

Following the couple’s accidental internet search, several black SUVs stopped at the couple’s home to ensure they did not pose a terrorist threat.

So if you don’t want the police showing up at your door, don’t search for the four words “pressure cooker bomb” along with the word “backpack.”

Following the couple’s accidental internet search, several black SUVs stopped at the couple’s home to ensure they did not pose a terrorist threat (File Image)

Michele described the surreal experience on her blog, saying her husband “saw three black SUVs in front of our house; two on the sidewalk out front and one stopped behind my husband’s Jeep in the driveway, as if to keep him from leaving.”

In response to the security issue, the Suffolk County Police Department issued a statement saying, “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.”

Michele wrote on her blog: ‘Above all, I felt a great sense of fear. This is where we are. Where you don’t expect privacy. Where learning to cook lentils could potentially land you on a watch list.”

She jokingly added, “All I know is that if I’m going to buy a pressure cooker in the near future, I’m not going to do it online. I’m scared. And not the right things.’