Author Topic: NYPD detained men who had pressure cookers to ‘prepare rice’  (Read 314 times)

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Offline flowers

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http://nypost.com/2014/07/26/nypd-detains-men-who-had-pressure-cookers-to-prepare-rice/

Quote
Police detained two men at a Midtown hotel late Friday after a doorman reported they possessed a pair of pressure cookers like those used to make the Boston Marathon bombs.

But the men say it was a misunderstanding: They plan to use the pressure cookers back home to prepare rice, chicken and meat.

Mohammad Alotaibi, 20, and Ayoub Alawadhi, 21, pulled up to the InterContinental Hotel on East 48th Street on Friday evening with the pressure cookers in their car trunk, said law enforcement sources.

A doorman called Crimestoppers, and NYPD counterterrorism and intelligence officers arrived to question the men.
More than a dozen cops responded, Alotaibi and a hotel worker said.

Police did not charge the two Idaho residents, who are of Kuwaiti background. But sources said the matter remains under investigation.
“The police questioned us for three hours. It was a little scary,” said Alawadhi.

It took a while to figure out why the cops were interrogating them, Alawadhi said.

“They said they found the pressure cookers. I said, ‘Yes, what’s wrong with that?’” he recounted.

“They said, ‘You haven’t heard about Boston?’ And I said ‘No.’ And they told me about Boston.”

Alawadhi said he and Alotaibi are students, and that they just completed summer classes at a Michigan university.

They bought the pressure cookers at an Arab supermarket in Dearborn, Michigan.

Alawadhi said they put the cookers in the back of their car, and drove to Manhattan for a few days of sightseeing fun. Then they planned to drive back home to Idaho.

Alawadhi described the experience of being detained by cops as “disgusting” and “weird.”

“I am leaving New York because of this,” he said. “We were supposed to stay until Tuesday, but we are leaving Sunday.”