FBI agents surrounded the home of a Saudi student who was walking around with a pressure cooker, but officials learned he was carrying it to a friend’s house.
The Michigan student, Talal al Rouki, said he was cooking the traditional Saudi rice dish kasbah, reported the Daily Mail.
The Mail noted that the FBI has become more vigilant over bombs made from pressure cookers after the Boston Marathon bombings. Two pressure cooker bombs were detonated at the finish line of the race in mid-April, killing three and wounding more than 200.
Al Rouki’s neighbors spotted him carrying a pressure cooker, prompting an investigation from the FBI.
“I was having breakfast when the police came over and told me that they wanted to ask me some questions,” he told Saudi daily Okaz, according to the Gulf News.
He added: “I became tense even though I had done nothing wrong and I had nothing to hide. They were very calm and asked if they could come in. Their questions were about my education in the US, the date of my arrival in the country and my activities outside the university.”
The FBI agent then reportedly told him: “You need to be more careful moving around with such things, sir,” according to the Mail.
Al Rouki told Okaz that he talked with the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C. about the incident.
“A Saudi official told me that they had received several reports from Saudi students about flat searches following the Boston explosions, but added that my experience was both unique and funny,” he said.
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