Secret Service breaks into Massachusetts salon before Harris announces rally
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after brutal questioning about security lapses at Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The owner of a Massachusetts salon said she felt “violated” after U.S. Secret Service allegedly 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 to hold an in-person fundraiser at the nearby Colonial Theater.
But their surveillance footage, obtained by Spectrum News 1 Worcester, shows a person dressed like a Secret Service officer taping over the lens of a security camera outside the building. Powers said footage from inside the building shows several officers in various uniforms coming in to use the restroom when the alarm went off.
“For about an hour and a half, there were several people in the house on and off – they were just using my bathroom, the alarms were going off, they were using my counter, without permission,” Powers told Business Insider.
A U.S. Secret Service official told USA TODAY in a statement Tuesday that Powers had been contacted. The statement did not confirm that the agency was responsible and said personnel would not enter “any” business without permission. The reported misstep came after the agency came under increased scrutiny following an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and the director resigned.
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Surveillance footage shows security guards in the salon with alarm
A video shared with Business Insider shows a woman in a dark suit and white button-up shirt — reminiscent of the attire of a Secret Service agent — walking to the salon and looking into the cameras and doors before pulling up a chair, standing on it, and apparently covering the camera with tape.
Footage from inside the salon shows two people in paramedic uniforms and one person in a police uniform.
Powers said she returned later that day to tape over a still image from the camera and left the door unlocked. She told Spectrum News Worcester she felt “violated and disrespected” and was “completely baffled that permission was not given or even asked to use the bathroom.”
Both media outlets reported that she also said that Secret Service representatives had since contacted her and apologized.
“The U.S. Secret Service works closely with our partners in the business community to carry out our protective and investigative mission,” USSS spokeswoman Melissa McKenzie said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY on Tuesday. “The Secret Service has since been in contact with the business owner involved. We greatly value these relationships and our personnel would not enter a business or direct our partners to enter a business without the owner’s permission.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Powers for comment.
