Politics & Government

Suffolk Cops Swarm After "Pressure Cooker" Web Search

Incident has Internet buzzing over what Web searches can trigger a visit from the police.

Suffolk County police went viral this week, triggering a host of Internet buzz after a Web search for the words "pressure cooker" and "backpack" led authorities to raid a family's Long Island home.

According to The Atlantic Wire, professional writer Michele Catalano was Googling about pressure cookers while her husband searched about backpacks on another computer. But the combination of those keywords was enough set of flags, especially so soon after two pressure cooker bombs killed three and injured dozens in the Boston Marathon bombings this spring. 

Suffolk and Nassau Police jointly searched the family's home, questioning them before deciding there was nothing criminal going on at the Catalano house. Meanwhile, the story spread across the globe. Atlantic's piece alone had more than 98,000 shares on Facebook.

Read more here.

In the wake of this week's incident, we're curious if you are more careful about what you search online. Let us know in the comments.


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