Secret Service forced to apologize after agents broke into Massachusetts salon to let people use bathroom during Kamala Harris fundraiser

Alicia Powers, the owner of the salon, recounted how Secret Service agents entered her building without prior notice by picking the lock to the front door and taping over the security cameras. The agents let the public use the bathroom for nearly two hours and left the premises unlocked after they were done.

Powers stated that she was aware of the need to close her salon for security reasons but had not been informed about the agents' intentions to use her property in this manner.

"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 explained to 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."

Footage from Powers' security camera showed a female Secret Service agent approaching the front door with a roll of duct tape. The agent then used a nearby chair to stand on and reach the security camera. Powers explained that several individuals entered the salon over the next hour and a half, using the bathroom and setting off alarms without permission. After leaving, they failed to remove the tape from the camera and did not secure the building.

After the incident was made public, the Secret Service reached out to Powers, and the agency’s Boston office issued an apology. A spokesperson for the Secret Service told Fox News, "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 agency added.

However, Brian Smith, the landlord of the building, said that no one gave the Secret Service officers permission to use or enter the building. Smith said that the Secret Service “had no permission to go in there whatsoever.”

Powers explained that when a representative for the Secret Service’s Boston field office called her to apologize, he admitted that the actions of the officers were wrong.

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