The police appear to have handled the investigation correctly at all levels.

Kids want to play around. Fine. I would have thought these kids old enough to know better. Apparently not. Because of a joke, these playful children lost their internship at Miami. Being an adult isn't easy, and I'll be very sorry if the only lesson these "doctors"-to-be take away with them is that the world is wrong and they are right. And if they repeat long enough that everyone around them is lying, they'll eventually believe it.

A woman, and her son, overheard a questionable conversation. The two discussed it, and the son was under the impression the three men "might" just be joking around. The woman was unsure and filed a report of the incident.

The three ran a toll booth, though they argue that the attendant was in error. This alerted the police and brought them to the scene. Before the officer gets out of his car, a license plate check brings the report from Georgia to light. He now has something of interest. It is likely here that he calls in the back-up of the bomb dogs, then, if he is not a lone-cop, gets out to question the suspects regarding the toll booth incident. The officer asks if he can search the vehicle, and the reports state the suspects reply of no. The dogs arrive, are brought to the vehicles, and they react to the vehicles. This is equivalent to a court-ordered search warrant. The three move up a notch on the suspect list, are removed from their vehicles, handcuffed and separated for questioning. when nothing is found to incriminate the three, they are released -- minus a blown backpack.

What got out of control was the alleged joke, not the police.

And it may even have a funny ending. The punch-line of the “joke” seems to be three knuckleheads are suddenly appalled that anyone in this nation would take the threat of a terrorist attack seriously.

Or there is no punch line, and a serious lesson is being missed. What is now claimed by the three is that a misunderstood conversation they were having regarding their trip to Miami was overheard:

A car, not a building, was what three Muslim medical students were talking about "bringing down" in a restaurant conversation that triggered the daylong closure of a Florida highway, lawyers for the students said Sunday.



[ ... ]

"She might have heard a few key words that she misconstrued, and she was trying to be a patriot, I guess, for America, which is understandable," Kambiz Butt said.




(Source)



Very possible -- though they are now together and alone, able to contrive whatever story they wish. Moot. Did the three of them say they were speaking of a car while in police custody? An unknown.

"We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know if Georgia is planning to press any charges against us," he said. "We don't know if we're going to be able to go come back to the university. We have no idea where our lives are going to head right now, all because of a statement made by some woman."

Sad, if true. If not, I suppose they could come up with, “We never said that,” to explain away:
At one point, Stone said the bearded man [Ayman Gheith] said if Americans "were sad on 9/11, wait until 9/13."
(Source)

The only thing out of hand is the public’s apparent reaction.

Andy Kaufman would have been proud,
Dan