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Reports: Secret Service broke into salon, used bathroom during Harris campaign stop in Pittsfield
Vice President Kamala Harris held an event in Pittsfield last month. The owner of a nearby salon says agents taped over a security camera and entered without permission.
When Vice President Kamala Harris stopped by Pittsfield last month for a campaign event, Secret Service agents reportedly taped over a security camera at a nearby salon and broke in to use a bathroom.
The incident surprised the salon’s owner, who told local news outlet iBerkshires that agents caused the business’s alarm to go off for hours and left a mess in their wake.
Four One Three Salon is situated very close to the Colonial Theatre, where Harris held her campaign event. Alicia Powers, the salon’s owner, said that security ramped up well before the event. The business was the subject of bomb sweeps, and she decided to keep it closed on the day of the Harris event, per iBerkshires.
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That morning, Powers saw security footage of someone placing tape over an outside security camera. Later on, she saw through other cameras that the business was being used by Secret Service agents and EMS workers.
Powers had reportedly left her business locked, but the Secret Service were able to gain access anyway.
“I pay taxes, I’m on top of my stuff, it was just a violation. I was like ‘Wow, that can happen without permission,’ and that was kind of mind-blowing for me,” she told iBerkshires.
Video of the outside camera being taped over was published by Business Insider.
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“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.
When Powers reached the salon later that afternoon, she spoke with EMS workers who said that they were told to use the bathroom in the salon by someone dressed in all black. Powers interpreted this as being a reference to the Secret Service. The bathroom was left “disgustingly dirty,” she told iBerkshires.
After contacting local police officials, Powers eventually received a call from a Secret Service representative. They apologized, said permission should have been sought, and offered to pay for cleaning and alarm bills.
“The U.S. Secret Service works closely with our partners in the business community to carry out our protective and investigative missions,” spokesperson Melissa McKenzie said in a statement to Boston.com. “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,” McKenzie said.
“They left the tape on my camera and they left my back door completely unlocked,” Powers told The Berkshire Eagle. “What could have happened in that hour and a half or two hours that you guys left the building unlocked?”
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