Secret Service agents responded to a tiny trespasser who squeezed his way through the White House fence and onto the lawn.
The toddler crawled onto the North Lawn of the White House Tuesday morning, according to reports. Secret Service Uniformed Division officers, who are responsible for security at the White House, walked across the lawn and rescued the infant intruder, then returned the child safely to his parents. Access to the complex was briefly blocked during the brief intrusion.
“The Secret Service Uniformed Division today encountered a curious young visitor along the White House north fence line who briefly entered White House ground,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said in a statement Tuesday, via CNN. “The White House security systems instantly triggered Secret Service officers and the toddler and parents were quickly reunited.”
The incident occurred at around 11 a.m. Tuesday, The Washington Post reported. The officers quickly responded to the scene. Guglielmi told The Washington Post that officers took care not to respond too aggressively in a way that might scare the child. The officers then briefly questioned the parents of the toddler, who were visiting from Canada, before letting them go. Access to the White House complex was briefly restricted while the family was reunited, the Associated Press reported.
“This might be a story around the Thanksgiving dinner table for sure,” Guglielmi joked to the Post.
The incident is the first such intrusion since the fence around the White House was rebuilt in 2019. The project nearly doubled the height of the previous fence from about 6 and 1/2 feet to 13 feet tall; it also made the pickets wider and stronger. The Secret Service and the National Park Service collaborated on the project. But the new fence included an extra inch of space between pickets, 5 and 1/2 inches total, which allowed the toddler to squeeze through.
Before the renovations, another toddler squeezed through the fence in 2014, briefly closing down the White House just as former President Obama was set to give an address about the war in Iraq. “We were going to wait until he learned to talk to question him, but in lieu of that he got a timeout and was sent on way with parents,” a Secret Service spokesperson said at the time.
On Monday, Secret Service agents were forced to respond to a much more serious incident. At around 1:30 a.m. on Monday, U.S. Secret Service officers responded to reports of a single gunshot at 34th and Massachusetts Avenue NW, near the U.S. Naval Observatory, the Secret Service said in a statement. Guglielmi said crime scene units were investigating the discharge of a firearm.
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“No one was reported to be injured and there is currently no indication that this incident was directed towards any protectees or the Naval Observatory,” added Lt. Paul Mayhair, another Secret Service spokesman.
The incident happened as the nation’s capital grapples with a rise in crime in the district in recent years, including a surge in gun violence. As reported by Axios, there was a 40% spike in reported violent crimes involving a gun between 2017, when there were 1,573, and last year, when the number rose to 2,203.
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.
