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Secret Service accused of breaking into Massachusetts salon to use bathroom during Kamala Harris event, agency responds
Surveillance footage captured the moment a Secret Service officer allegedly used a tape to cover a camera outside the salon.
The Secret Service reportedly apologised to a Massachusetts salon owner who claimed that some individuals broke into her business to use the bathroom while the agency was doing security work for a nearby Kamala Harris fundraiser. Berkshires businesswoman Alicia Powers alleged that someone picked the lock and then broke into her store to use the bathroom. This happened after a Secret Service officer used a tape to cover a camera outside her salon.
A pair of people wearing emergency medical uniforms, a person in camouflage law-enforcement gear and another in a dark suit and white shirt used the bathroom, Powers said. A Secret Service rep asserted that agents would never break into buildings this way. However, the rep did not deny that the camera was covered with tape by an officer. This act was even captured by surveillance footage.
‘Our personnel would not enter, or instruct our partners to enter, a business without the owner’s permission’
“The Secret Service has since communicated with the affected business owner. We hold these relationships in the highest regard and our personnel would not enter, or instruct our partners to enter, a business without the owner’s permission,” Secret Service spokesperson Melissa McKenzie said, according to New York Post.
Business Insider reported that Powers said the head of the Secret Service’s Boston-based field office called her and offered an apology. “He said to me everything that was done was done very wrong,” Powers said. “They were not supposed to tape my camera without permission. They were not supposed to enter the building without permission.”
The shop owner owns Four One Three Salon in Pittsfield. The incident reportedly took place on July 27 before the US vice president’s first major in-person fundraiser after Joe Biden ended his candidacy and endorsed her. The salon is located behind Colonial Theatre, which is where Harris’ event was held.
The owner said that due to the security mayhem, her salon was closed before the fundraiser. “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,” she said. “And at that point, my team felt like it was a little bit chaotic, and we just made the decision to close for Saturday.”
Powers said that early that morning, a female Secret Service agent covered a Ring security camera at the salon using duct tape. “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 said. “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.”
“Whoever was visiting, whether it was a celebrity or not, I probably would’ve opened the door and made them coffee and brought in donuts to make it a great afternoon for them,” she added. “But they didn’t even have the audacity to ask for permission. They just helped themselves.”
Power claimed that an emergency medical services worker later informed her that a Secret Service officer in charge “was telling people to come in and use the bathroom.”
This incident comes days after Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally, leading to the Secret Service facing widespread criticism for their failure to secure the roof of the building from where gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire. Days later, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle tendered her resignation.
