At the Broncos-Chargers game in San Diego last Sunday, a group of four Sikh Broncos fans were allegedly stopped by security guards before entering the stadium, asked to remove their turbans, and had their car searched by a bomb-sniffing dog, according to San Diego ABC 10 News.Verinder Mahli and his three buddies drove seven hours from Fresno to get to the game and, according to Mahli, were greeted by what seems like a heinous act of profiling. Mahli told KGTV that security initially refused them entry because his three friends were wearing turbans.
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Security was not the only problem, however, as police responded to a "fearful fan" who called to report "three men wearing turbans were fiddling with items in their trunk." Men fiddling with something in their trunk in the parking lot of a football game? Well, I never."Three of my buddies, they had turbans on, and "it was like, you guys got to take the turbans off," Mahli said.
They were finally allowed inside Qualcomm, but Malhi claims a security supervisor told him that if they ever come back, they cannot wear turbans.
"It's bad, I mean, this is embarrassing for me, because we are Americans at the end of the day," Mahli said. "And we are not supposed to be afraid of fellow Americans."ABC 10 reports that San Diego city officials are looking into the incident, adding that stadium security are not technically city officials.[h/t Bleacher Report]#Broncos fans were hassled by Qualcomm stadium security last Sunday over their turbans: https://t.co/VtLlyaIc8S pic.twitter.com/v66ahbbtsv
— 10News (@10News) December 11, 2015