Sheer audacity.
The Secret Service has apologized to a Massachusetts salon owner who claimed someone broke into her business to use the restroom while the agency was providing security for a nearby fundraiser for vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Alicia Powers, a Berkshire businesswoman, said Secret Service agents covered the camera outside her salon with tape and then someone picked the lock to get into her business’s bathroom.
Citing the footage, Powers said those using the restroom included two people dressed in paramedic uniforms, a person dressed in camouflage police attire and another person dressed in a black suit and white shirt similar to the Secret Service officer who was guarding the door.
Secret Service officials were adamant that agents would not enter such buildings, but did not deny that officers had covered the cameras with tape and that their actions had been captured on security cameras, and appeared to offer some sort of apology in the statement.
“The Secret Service has since been in contact with the affected business owners. We value these relationships highly and our agents would never enter or direct their partners to enter a business without the owner’s permission,” Secret Service spokeswoman Melissa McKenzie said.
Powers said the head of the Secret Service’s Boston field office called to apologize. Business Insider.
“He told me everything that had been done was very wrong,” Powers told the outlet. “You were not allowed to record on my camera without my permission. You were not allowed in the building without my permission.”
The shopkeeper said, Owner of Four One Three Salon Sen. Harris, R-Pittsfield, said the incident happened on July 27 before her first major in-person fundraiser since President Biden dropped out of the election, paving the way for the vice president to become the Democratic presidential nominee.
The salon is located behind the Colonial Theatre, where Harris’ events were held.
She said the salon had closed before the fundraiser because of security disruptions.
“They also had a lot of personnel coming in and out here doing bomb sweeps. I completely understand what they have to do because of the nature of the situation,” she told the news agency.
“And at that point, my team felt like it was a little bit chaotic, so we decided to close on Saturdays.”
Then, earlier that morning, a female Secret Service agent duct tape-covered the salon’s Ring security camera, Powers said.
Footage of the incident was later posted to social media.
The department has previously covered certain cameras during perimeter searches due to safety concerns.
Powers claimed that later that day, another security camera in the building detected four people inside the building for over an hour.
“For about an hour and a half, there were several people coming in and out, using my bathroom, setting off my alarm, and using the counter without permission,” Powers complained to Business Insider.
“Then, after their two-hour restroom visit, they left my building completely unlocked and didn’t even bother to remove the tape from their cameras.
“Anyone who was visiting, famous or not, I would probably open the door, bring them some coffee, some doughnuts and have a great afternoon,” she says, “but they didn’t even have the audacity to ask permission and just took it.”
She claimed that she was later told by emergency medical services personnel that the Secret Service agents on duty were “instructing people to go inside and use the bathroom.”
The incident came nearly two weeks after attempted assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed onto the roof of a shed about 130 yards from former President Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 and fired multiple shots, including one that hit an ear.
The gunman’s shots killed one person and wounded two in the crowd, and Crooks was shot and killed by police.
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned following a backlash over security lapses, and the situation is facing multiple investigations.
