A toddler squeezed through the bars of the new, much higher fence around the White House, the Associated Press reports:
U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division officers, who are responsible for security at the White House, walked across the North Lawn to retrieve the tot and reunite him with his parents on Pennsylvania Avenue. Access to the complex was briefly restricted while officers conducted the reunification. Officers briefly questioned the parents before allowing them to continue on their way.
The tyke joins a grand tradition of people who, usually by design, have penetrated the most secure lawnspace in the United States, from British soldiers (they went on to burn the President’s House) to a guy who briefly landed a helicopter on the South Lawn to Gerald Gainous Jr., who managed to get through four times.
Children older than this toddler, AP reports, “have sometimes become stuck in the iconic barrier.”
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
