Mall parking attendants reported two vans with suspicious printed material on seats, including "The House of Yahweh Newsletter" and a book with a photo of an exploding building on the front cover. The K-9 unit, bomb squad and FBI were called and the vehicle locks were cut. Commercial photography equipment was found in the vans.

In May 2009, two black men visiting the Mall of America drew the suspicions of a mall security employee as they strolled through the attractions with a video camera. This animation displays the observations of the security guard as written in the mall's "Suspicious Activity Events Log" and noted with a map of the mall in the incident report.

“For all the 30 years that I have lived in the United States, I’ve never been a suspect,” said Emil Khalil. The California man was confronted at the mall in June 2009 for taking pictures, and he said an FBI agent later questioned him and his brother, Sameer, at the airport. “And I’ve never done anything wrong.”

Two "Middle Eastern" men with a camera and possible "radar gun" watched airplanes from the parking lot. They left without being questioned.