The U.S. Secret Service has issued an apology to Alicia Powers, the owner of a Massachusetts salon after agents broke in [1] and used her building’s bathroom without permission ahead of a fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris last week.
Powers reported that Secret Service agents not only used her salon’s bathroom but also put duct tape over her security cameras and broke into the building by picking the lock.
The U.S. Secret Service is apologizing to a Massachusetts salon owner after an agent covered her security camera with duct tape and broke into her salon by picking the lock so that its bathroom could be used by various people for a two-hour period.
After the two-hour period,… pic.twitter.com/s4qSFtebn0 [2]
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 11, 2024 [3]
The agents allowed various individuals to use the bathroom over a two-hour period.
Powers told Business Insider, “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. 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 Ring security camera shows a Secret Service agent approaching the door with tape, covering the camera, and then entering the building. Powers described the scene: “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.”
When the Secret Service agents left, they left the building unlocked and did not remove the tape from the camera, according to Powers.
Powers also reported that an EMS worker informed her that the Secret Service agent in charge was directing people to use the bathroom. The Secret Service has admitted that an agent taped over the camera but claimed that agents would not have used the building without permission.
Powers added, “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. But they didn’t even have the audacity to ask for permission. They just helped themselves.”
The building’s landlord, Brian Smith, confirmed that neither he nor his father, who co-owns the building, gave permission for the Secret Service to enter. Smith said, “Me and my dad own the building, and I have a crazy eccentric guy that lives upstairs. And he didn’t tell the Secret Service they could use it, and I didn’t tell them, and my father didn’t tell them, and they had no permission to go in there whatsoever.”
After Business Insider contacted the Secret Service, a representative from the Boston field office called Powers to apologize, acknowledging that the agents’ actions were improper. Powers relayed the representative’s apology: “He said to me everything that was done was done very wrong. They were not supposed to tape my camera without permission. They were not supposed to enter the building without permission.”