The Secret Service has come under fire for breaking into a local salon ahead of a major Kamala Harris campaign event last month.
Businesswoman Alicia Powers said she was left feeling “violated” after a Secret Service agent was filmed covering up one of the salon’s security cameras with tape, broke into the business and allegedly allowed people to use the bathroom without her permission.
The incident took place on July 27 when the vice president was speaking at a fundraiser at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts – Harris’s first major in-person fundraiser since she launched her presidential campaign. Organizers said that Harris raked in over $1.4m for her campaign from the event.
The performing arts space is located behind Powers’ Four One Three salon.
Powers told Business Insider that she had decided to close her business that Saturday due to the heavy security surrounding the campaign event, but when she returned the salon was unlocked.
When she checked a security camera inside, she saw several people using the bathroom.
Footage shows a Secret Service agent climbing on a chair and placing duct tape over an external security camera, while a second camera inside captured multiple people, two wearing medical uniform, entering the premises.
“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,” said Powers.
“And at that point, my team felt like it was a little bit chaotic, and we just made the decision to close for the Saturday.”
“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 added.
“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.”
Powers hit out at the agents for failing to ask her permission to use her business.
“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,” she said.
The Secret Service initially said they would never have entered the property without permission.
But later, Powers said she received an apology from an agency representive in the Boston field office.
She said: “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.”
Melissa McKenzie, Secret Service spokesperson, told The Independent in a statement: “The US Secret Service works closely with our partners in the business community to carry out our protective and investigative missions.
“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.”
The incident comes as the Secret Service has faced heavy scrutiny since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pensylvannia, on July 13.
The agency admitted that its handling of the event marked a serious lapse in security and its Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned amid the backlash.
The Secret Service has now vowed to provide counter sniper coverage at presidential campaign events for all candidates and their running mates in the wake of the shooting.
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