Morteza Razaviein, an Iranian national who’s now 62, went to the Mall of America last year to see if it was as impressive as he had heard.
He had come to the United States for the first time to visit his son, a student at the University of Minnesota. He was videotaping near the Nordstrom Court area when he was stopped by security.
“He took video of the mall because it was, ‘Beautiful!’ ” reads a report dated Feb. 22, 2010.
The security guards who interviewed him were disturbed by some of the shots on his video camera. They noted that the video captured “stores and structure.”
“There were also short videos which appeared accidental in nature with hands on the camera lens and floor shots,” one security officer wrote.
Because he did not speak English, Razaviein carried a note with his son’s name, address and telephone number. He suffered from high blood pressure, too. As the guards questioned him, Razaviein became disoriented.
“While we were looking at the footage, I noticed Razaviein to (sic) lose control of his body, like a string puppet would. I realized that Razaviein was passing out and grabbed him to stabilize his body,” the report said.
Security officials released him once Bloomington police called his son, checked his international driver’s license and reviewed the contents of his camera. An FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in the area was notified, records show.
When asked about the episode, Razaviein through his son, Meisam, declined to comment. Meisam said they are afraid to speak about what happened because of fears the Iranian government might punish his father.
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