Secret Service alerted by a tiny intruder on White House grounds!
Washington DC- A toddler bizarrely broke into the grounds of the White House Tuesday and put Secret Service officials on high alert!
Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi told CNN the little boy squeezed through the fence on the north side of the White House grounds, setting off security alerts.
"The Secret Service Uniformed Division today encountered a curious young visitor along the White House north fence line who briefly entered White House ground," Gugliemli said. "The White House security systems instantly triggered Secret Service officers and the toddler and parents were quickly reunited."
This intruder's perimeter breach might be the first successful intrusion since the White House got a taller fence!
This is the first breach of the new White House fence
As NPR noted, the White House got a new fence after a series of breeches made upping security a necessity.
In 2014, another curious toddler crawled through the fence. This baby intrusion delayed then President Barack Obama's briefing on Iraq.
That same year, a 43-year-old Texan Iraq veteran managed to scale the fence, with a huge knife. This incident caused the then head of the Secret Service to resign, and the man was sentenced to 17 months in prison.
These incidents, plus another break-in in 2017, made the new reported $64-million fence upgrade necessary.
This new fence is roughly 13 feet tall and thus almost twice as high as the old one. But it also boasts an extra inch of space between pickets, which is supposed to make climbing more difficult.
This extra space may have made it easier for this tot to squeeze through! Luckily, the little one was apprehended and returned to their parents without incident.
Cover photo: Jim WATSON/AFP