Secret Service apologizes for break-in at salon at Harris fundraiser (2024)

A Massachusetts Salon owner feels 'violated' after the United States Secret Service broke into her business during a nearby fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Footage from a Ring security camera shows an agent approaching the front door of the business in Berkshire, Massachusetts before coming back to tape over the video camera.

Alicia Powers, the salon owner, said after the camera was covered, agents broke into the building by picking the lock and then allowing multiple people to use the bathroom inside over a two-hour period.

Amidst heightened scrutiny on the agency that protects the most high-profile U.S. politicians after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the Secret Service is now forced to apologize for this much lower stakes fumble.

After Business Insider called the agency about the bizarre case, Powers says a representative for the Secret Service's Boston field office called to apologize.

'He said to me everything that was done was done very wrong,' Powers recounted to Insider. 'They were not supposed to tape my camera without permission. They were not supposed to enter the building without permission.'

Additionally, the building's landlord Brian Smith confirmed that he never gave permission to Secret Service officers to use or enter the building.

'Me and my dad own the building, and I have a crazy eccentric guy that lives upstairs,' Smith said. '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.'

Power said it became clear she would need to close for the day on Saturday, July 27 when Harris was coming for her first campaign fundraiser after becoming the presumed Democratic presidential nominee.

But the owner of Four One Three Salon in Pittsfield, Massachusetts said if she was informed Secret Service needed to use her business' facilities for security staffing the fundraiser, she would have opened her doors.

'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,' Powers said.

'But they didn't even have the audacity to ask for permission,' she added. 'They just helped themselves.'

Just weeks ago, Kimberly Cheatle stepped down as director of the Secret Service after Donald Trump was shot in the ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last month.

Failures from the agency prevented early enough detection and action to prevent 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks from getting onto a nearby roof and shooting at the former president.

The bullet that grazed Trump's ear was just centimeters from his head. And other rally goers were not as lucky, with one dying and two others sustaining critical injuries before the Secret Service neutralized the shooter.

Social Media is up in arms over the latest 'violation' and calls the incident an 'act of tyranny.'

'The salon owner needs to press charges w/local SO or police. The agents should be arrested for this,' one X user wrote.

Another said: 'This is an unforgivable act of tyranny by the Secret Service—an appalling abuse of power that spits in the face of every principle this country stands for.'

'Agents breaking into a private business, tampering with security, and treating a citizen's property like their personal playground is nothing short of criminal,' they added. 'This is not just a violation; it's a disgusting display of arrogance, a contemptuous disregard for the rule of law, and an insult to the rights of every American.'

'Heads must roll for this. Apologies are worthless. Accountability is non-negotiable. This atrocity demands immediate, severe consequences.'

One X user claims the act was a violation of the Constitution.

'The Third Amendment: No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law,' the user wrote.

Powers said that a Secret Service agent broke into her business by picking the lock and proceeded to use her facilities for at least two hours.

'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,' Powers told Business Insider.

'And at that point, my team felt like it was a little bit chaotic, and we just made the decision to close for Saturday.'

But what appeared to bother her the most was that the agents left her business unlocked when they left.

More than a week after the incident and a day after Business Insider reached out to the Secret Service for comment on the break-in, the agency said it had 'since communicated' with the business owner.

'The U.S. Secret Service works closely with our partners in the business community to carry out our protective and investigative missions,' Secret Service spokesperson Melissa McKenzie replied. 'The Secret Service has since communicated with the affected business owner.'

She continued: '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.'

Asked whether USSS invited people to use the business' facilities, McKenzie insisted that the agency's employees 'would not' welcome someone into the salon without the owner's permission.