MS Flight Sim enquiry raises terror alert

Flight Sim enquiry raises terror alert
By Andrew Orlowski in Las Vegas
Posted: 08/01/2004 at 22:39 GMT
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A mother's enquiry about buying Microsoft Flight
Simulator for her
ten-year-old son prompted a night-time visit to her
home from a
state trooper.

Julie Olearcek, a USAF Reserve pilot made the
enquiry at a Staples
store in Massachusetts, home to an earlier bout of
hysteria, during
the Salem witch trials.

So alarmed was the Staples clerk at the prospect of
the ten year old
learning to fly, that he informed the police, the
Greenfield Recorder
reports. The authorities moved into action, leaving
nothing to
chance. A few days later, Olearcek was alarmed to
discover a state
trooper flashing a torch into to her home through a
sliding glass door
at 8:30 pm on a rainy night.

Olearcek is a regular Staples customer and schools
her son at
home. The Staples manager simply explained that
staff were
obeying advice. Shortly before Christmas, the FBI
issued a terror
alert to beware of drivers with maps, or reference
books.

At one time it was rare to find US citizens, in the
safest and most
prosperous country in the world, jumping at their
own shadows. Now
we only note how high. ®