It was just another day at work for John Kierstead of South Portland until Mohammed Atta came looking for box cutters 5 years ago, just before the events of Sept. 9, 2001.

Kierstead, a Harvard graduate, said he has always been a history buff and wanted a connection with history, but he would have preferred to witness Waterloo.

Atta, a ringleader in the tragic events of 9/11, came into True Value at Mill Creek in South Portland with three or four people and asked Kierstead for 21 flat box-cutters, said Kierstead. Kierstead searched the store supplies, but could not find more than ten. Since they couldn’t get all 21, the group of men left, he said.

“I will never forget Atta’s face,” said Kierstead, 53. He said he has never seen eyes as focused as Atta’s. “But they didn’t come off as lunatics, just wacky guys,” said Kierstead.

Kierstead said no one has come to officially document the incident. He told he his friend, Sgt. David Smith of the South Portland Police Department, but there have been no follow up interviews.

Smith said it was such a busy time that Kierstead’s information went in one ear and out the other. “I’m just drawing a big blank on it,” he said. Smith does remember talking with Kierstead about Atta coming into the store and thought the police department had taken a statement.

True Value at Mill Creek owner, Tim Simpson, remembers the day Atta came in, but said he did not see him. “Kierstead was the only one who talked to him,” he said.

Drew Holston works with Kierstead, but was not working the day Atta came in. “Even to this day he has bad dreams about it.” “It took a while for the pictures to come out and recognized Atta immediately.” Kierstead appeared to feel some guilt for not reporting the suspicious persons, said Holston.

Federal Bureau of Investigation reports say that on Sept. 10, 2001, Atta checked into the Comfort Inn on the Maine Mall Road in South Portland, and he was seen at the Wal-Mart in Scarborough that night.

Kierstead has told his story many times, but never in a public forum. He said he was inspired to come forward and tell his story by the words of Winston Churchill, whose books Kierstead has been recently pouring over.

Kierstead said a group of men of Middle Eastern decent came into the store a few days before the events of 9/11. As they came up to Kierstead, they parted and Atta came forward to ask the questions.

“I didn’t feel any hate, it just seemed like they were on speed or something,” said Kierstead.

Atta said he needed 21 box-cutters, and Kierstead said that he had never sold one in the two previous years of working at the store. “If he had asked for Easter eggs in December it would have been just as surprising,” he said.

He was looking for the quintessential compact box-cutters with a slide, said Kierstead. He said he tried to sell Atta larger, easier to use box-cutters, but Atta kept saying that they were too big.

Kierstead said the only possibility that came to his head was that the group had bought a house they were fixing up. He said they mumbled a lot amongst themselves and laughed at their own inside jokes. They just said they had a “big job” to do.

Atta was obviously educated, said Kierstead. “The look in his eyes was driven, he knew he was gonna be dead in a few days,” said Kierstead. “Hatred must be what kept him going.” He said as Atta joined in some small talk he relaxed a little, but refused to get personnel.

Kierstead said that as Atta and his group were leaving the store, Atta said, “stay out of New York City.” Kierstead said he asked why and the only reply was a smile.

“As soon as I saw his photo in the newspaper after 9/11 I knew it was him,” said Kierstead. “I’ll never forget that face,” he said.

Kierstead said it just never crossed his mind what Atta was really planning, but he has kept his eye open ever since. Someone came in the store about 8 months ago to buy a single tube for pouring round, concrete bases for deck posts. “No one ever buys just one,” he said, “and it would be a perfect bomb because it is a round casing with no metal.” He called the authorities about the purchase, but there was no foul play in the incident.

“It was something I was gonna keep inside,” said Kierstead about the incident. After reading Churchill and with the approach of the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, he changed his mind.

Kierstead said hardly a day goes by that he does not remember Atta walking into the hardware store.