Pittsfield Hair Salon Owner Shocked by Break-In During Harris Visit
Salon owner Alicia Powers says her alarm was going off for hours and she could see people inside the building through her security cameras.
The owner was shocked to find that her locked business across from the back of the theater had been entered and the bathroom used during this time.
"I knew with [Secret Service] being here in the parking lot and in here, my building was safe because it's all of the police personnel, but it was just a violation," Alicia Powers said.
"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."
After searching for answers, Powers said she received a call from a Secret Service representative in Boston last Wednesday, who took responsibility for the incident even though he could not confirm that his agents were involved.
She initially hesitated to go public about the incident but now feels seen and heard by both the agency and the local community.
"I really felt good about that and that's all I wanted out of the situation was accountability," she said. "Because if we do something wrong in the community and we get in trouble, we're held accountable and we have to make sure that we follow through with that and that's all that I was asking for."
U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Melissa McKenzie confirmed that the agency had contacted Powers.
"The U.S. Secret Service works closely with our partners in the business community to carry out our protective and investigative missions," she wrote.
"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."
Harris' campaign fundraiser on Saturday, July 27, drew crowds to the downtown prompted countless security measures. Wendell Avenue was blocked off from the public and a white tent was placed in the rear of the theater for the vice president's entrance.
This is right across the parking lot from Powers' salon at 54 Wendell Ave.
Around 8:12 a.m. while driving home from Cape Cod, she saw that someone had come onto her porch and taped the outside security camera without permission, reducing it to a black screen. She understood that this was likely needed because of the proximity to Harris' entrance.
At 11:15 a.m., the door's alarm started going off but it did not appear that anyone had entered based on the indoor camera.
"I couldn't see from my camera above the front desk anybody that walked in so what I'm assuming is that they maybe checked the door to see if it was unlocked, opened it just a little bit and the alarm started to go off," she said.
"Then the alarm was going off for an hour and a half and at 12:42 was the first time somebody entered the salon."
Not being able to see from the outside camera, Powers saw two emergency medical workers, a person she assumed was from a special response team, and a person dressed in all black, "my assumption of it being Secret Service based on who covered the camera."
She emphasized that her team prioritizes safety and locked the door Friday night, noting her hard work over the last six years to build the salon.
"They are really diligent about making sure that that's locked. It is my most important thing in here is to make sure that this place is safe and locked down," she said.
A short wall screens the door from the inside security camera's sight but there was no sign of it being kicked down. Still, it had somehow become unlocked.
"When I got back to my phone, it was actually closer to 2:30 before I caught that. When I saw that people were in here I literally got in my car I raced here they had already essentially cleaned up and left," Powers said.
"When I got back here, my front door was left unlocked. I don't know how long it was unlocked for and that's essentially the the gist of what happened. They were walking around in here for a good hour and a half, my alarm was going off the entire time, that should have alarmed somebody that maybe you shouldn't be in the building."
Harris arrived around 3 p.m. with a Secret Service and State Police escort and entered the Colonial through a side door. She traveled down Pomeroy Avenue to leave the city around 45 minutes later after speaking for around 15 minutes.
Powers said wasn't able to get to the salon until around 4:30 p.m. when security was lifted but by then the parking lot had cleared out. She asked some sheriff's deputies still there if people had been in her building.
"They said the only thing that I heard was that people were going in to use the bathroom and that was when I was kind of baffled," she said.
EMS workers told her that "somebody dressed in all black" advised them to use her bathroom. She attributed this to the Secret Service.
Two days before the event, the salon underwent bomb sweeps. After an hour and a half, clients began to get "pretty uncomfortable" and the team decided to close on Saturday, taking the financial hit on what is usually a busy day.
"I think it was the best decision," Powers said.
Two people can be seen in this snapshot from the security camera shortly before 3 p.m. on July 27. The front door is blocked by the wall.
She did a little bit of digging, calling the police chief, sergeants, and other members of the PPD.
"They made phone calls, they attempted everything but then they kept getting bounced around and that was kind of where I was like, 'alright, well where do I take this from here if we're not getting to the bottom of an accountability?'" she said.
"I'm not looking to file a lawsuit. I'm not looking to do any of that. I just want the apology and I want the accountability for why you were in the building."
Powers' wishes were then answered when she received a phone call from a Secret Service representative who reportedly offered to compensate for any damages.
"He took responsibility even though he's like I can't really see if those are my agents, but I want to make sure that you receive an apology. I want to make sure that you understand that this is not OK. Permission should have been asked to first of all, to put tape over your camera and to go into your building. He offered any support for my bathroom being left disgustingly dirty," she explained, as the salon had just been cleaned.
"He offered to have the salon deep cleaned if we needed to. He offered to pay for whatever the alarm bill was going to be because the alarm was going off for four hours and nobody could get here and really just made sure that I felt seen and heard and essentially promised that it wouldn't ever happen again."
She feels that it was being "non-stop" with phone calls that prompted this outcome.
"I felt like my voice was kind of being quieted and that's when I made the decision last week to really start to speak on it," Powers said. "It happened to be that clients were sitting in our chair that worked for these outlets and I felt like it was just all kind of meant to be."
With permission, Powers said she would have been happy to open her bathroom. She noted that this has nothing to do with politics.
"It could have been Lady Gaga that was coming into the Colonial Theatre and I would have done the same thing," she said.
"Either side, either celebrity, it doesn't matter what it was but permission should have been asked no matter what."
Tags: break-ins, campaign event, secret service,
