There are probably hundreds to thousands of pressure cookers purchased in the Boston area every week so unless they were purchased with a credit card, this would be useless. While I'm sure Big Brother has the ability of going through each and every little purchase any of us make, I don't like the idea. Unless they have a warrant for my credit card account, what gives them the right to know that I bought a soft drink and a bag of chips at the corner store last Tuesday at 3:47 pm?
Actually of the type they I.D.'d in this case far fewer. Not sure of the number, but is was under a hundred. Basic police work to run them all down- even if was thousands.
That's a tall order. The credit card company won't have the data. They'll just have the merchant, the timestamp, the amount, and whatever approval code they issued. They won't have the list of what you bought. All they will have is the establishment's SIC code, e.g., 5719 Miscellaneous Home Furnishings Store.
The store might or might not have data at the item level in their computer. If they do, then it would link back to the means of payment. If a credit card was used, there would be the time stamp, the card brand, and the approval code. The full card detail would have been wiped to comply with credit card security requirements, the data being no longer required to complete the transaction. To identify the buyer, an investigator would have to go back to the card company and get them to retrieve the transaction.
Also, if the transaction were relatively recent, the store might still have video, assuming they have a security system.