The Secret Service hasn’t exactly been covering itself in glory lately. Between the “unsolved” cocaine-at-the-White House mystery and the massive security failures that led to former President Donald Trump’s almost being assassinated in July — and the subsequent stonewalling — the agency has rightly earned the mountains of scorn heaped on it of late.
But as head-scratch-inducing as much of the news is these days, this story out of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, might just take the cake. Secret Service agents, ahead of a July 27 Kamala Harris fundraiser in the area, apparently commandeered — as in taped over the security camera and picked the lock — a local salon and allowed people to use its restroom over the span of a couple of hours.
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Now, the agency is apologizing for its actions.
The salon owner, Alicia Powers, says Secret Service agents put duct tape over her security cameras and broke into her building by picking the lock. They then allowed various people to use the salon’s bathroom over a two-hour period.
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“They had a bunch of people in and out of here doing a couple of bomb sweeps again – totally understand what they have to do, due to the nature of the situation,” Powers told Business Insider. “And at that point, my team felt like it was a little bit chaotic, and we just made the decision to close for Saturday.”
Footage from the salon’s front-door Ring security camera shows a Secret Service agent approaching the door with a roll of tape and observing the locked door and the camera. The agent then grabbed a nearby chair and stood on it to tape over the security camera.
“There were several people in and out for about an hour-and-a-half – just using my bathroom, the alarms going off, using my counter, with no permission,” Powers told BI.
“And then when they were done using the bathroom for two hours, they left, and left my building completely unlocked, and did not take the tape off the camera,” she added.
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Powers says a representative for the Secret Service’s Boston field office called her to apologize after BI contacted the agency about the incident.
“He said to me everything that was done was done very wrong,” Powers told the outlet. “They were not supposed to tape my camera without permission. They were not supposed to enter the building without permission.”
The agency has reportedly offered to pay for any damages caused by its actions.
Powers said the Secret Service’s Boston office has apologized on behalf of the agency. She also said Pittsfield Police officers up to and including Chief Thomas Dawley have been helpful and supportive of her efforts to get accountability.
The person she spoke with at the Secret Service confirmed that the woman who taped over the Ring camera at about 8:12 a.m. July 27 was with the agency. She also said the agency offered to pay to have the salon cleaned and pay for any damages, and also pay for the business’ private alarm bill “because it was going off for so long.”
“I was happy with his apology. It’s a little bit of accountability. Again, I wasn’t looking to do anything,” Powers said.
But she was particularly alarmed about the agents leaving the space so vulnerable after they left.
“We’re a small business. We’ve all worked incredibly hard to build this business,” she said. “This is our livelihood. And it could have been taken from all of my 12 employees in a flash.”
Still, one has to wonder at the mindset that led the agent(s) involved to believe this was appropriate behavior — and whether they’ll face any accountability for their wholly inappropriate actions.
