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Warning issued over googling these four words as it could send police to your house

Home> News

Published 18:55 5 May 2025 GMT+1

Warning issued over googling these four words as it could send police to your house

These rather normal words could see you get flagged

Gerrard Kaonga

Gerrard Kaonga

While it might seem funny to try, typing certain words into your Google search bar is probably not worth all the hassle it could cause.

Now I'm not going to risk having police turning up my door by Googling these words, but thankfully a freelance journalist has already tried this.

She discovered that there are four words if you type consecutively together on the search engine that you will likely raise some eyebrows, and authorities might view it as a red flag.

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Now before you start guessing, the words aren’t anything sexual nor is it about children in anyway.

The incident took place in Long Island, New York back in 2013 and the response to the curious Michele Catalano's simple search shocked both her and her husband.

You need to be careful about Googling these four words together if you don't want police potentially raiding your home (Getty Stock Image)
You need to be careful about Googling these four words together if you don't want police potentially raiding your home (Getty Stock Image)

Hilariously, Catalano took to her blog to share what had happened, as she wrote: "Googling of certain things was creating a perfect storm of terrorism profiling."

The search terms were Googled two days apart on her husband's work laptop, and following the terror that was inflicted on New York just a decade earlier, it was a cause for concern for his employer.

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It was flagged by IT staff and the decision was made to contact Suffolk County Police Department to report the strange activity coming from Catalano's address.

Immediately a huge police presence arrived at their home in a bid to find evidence relating to terrorism.

So what did they search? As mentioned earlier, the searches were made a matter of days apart - separate searches for 'pressure cooker' and 'backpacks' made someone incredibly antsy - presumably because they thought they were googling the ingredients to make a bomb.

So, if you don't want police to show up at your door, don't search 'pressure cooker bomb' alongside the word 'backpack'.

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There may well have been some animosity between the employee and his former work though, as Suffolk County police released a statement following the raid.

Unfortunately terrorists have been known to make bombs out of pressure cookers (Getty stock)
Unfortunately terrorists have been known to make bombs out of pressure cookers (Getty stock)

It read: "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."

While it turned out to only be something as innocent as looking for a new pressure cooker and backpack, it left Catalano a little shook up.

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She 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."

Well, now you know, stay safe Googling!

Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Images

Topics: News, Technology

Gerrard Kaonga
Gerrard Kaonga

Gerrard is a Journalist at UNILAD and has dived headfirst into covering everything from breaking global stories to trending entertainment news. He has a bachelors in English Literature from Brunel University and has written across a number of different national and international publications. Most notably the Financial Times, Daily Express, Evening Standard and Newsweek.

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