Secret Service apologizes for Mass. salon break-in, reports
A Massachusetts salon owner said she felt “violated” after the U.S. Secret Service covered her security camera and other officials entered her business without permission during an event for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to multiple reports.
Alicia Powers, owner of Four One Three Salon in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, told Business Insider she decided to close her business on July 27, when Harris was scheduled for an in-person fundraiser at the nearby Colonial Theater.
But her security footage obtained by Spectrum News 1 Worcester shows a person dressed like a Secret Service officer taping over the lens of a security camera positioned outside the building. Powers said the footage from inside the shows several officials in various uniforms coming in while the alarms blared to use the bathroom.
“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 Business Insider.
USSS spokesperson Melissa McKenzie told USA TODAY Tuesday the woman in the video was an agent, but she did not access the salon nor direct others to access the salon. Nonetheless, the Powers said the USSS reached out to her to apologize. The reported misstep comes after the agency has been under heightened scrutiny following an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, and the director resigned.
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Security footage shows safety officials in salon with alarms ringing
Video shared with Business Insider shows the Secret Service agent walking up to the salon and looking in the cameras and doors, before pulling a chair over to stand on it and apparently tape over the camera.
Footage from inside shows two people in emergency medical services uniforms and one person wearing a law enforcement uniform inside the salon.
Powers said she came back later that day to tape still over the camera and the door unlocked. She told Spectrum News Worcester she felt “violated, disrespected,” and “just totally blown away that there wasn’t permission granted or even asked to go into the bathroom.”
She also said representatives from the Secret Service have since reached out to apologize, both outlets reported.
“The U.S. Secret Service works closely with our partners in the business community to carry out our protective and investigative mission,” USSS spokesperson Melissa McKenzie said an emailed statement. “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.”
USA TODAY reached out to Powers for comment.
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