A sneaky and curious visitor has been noted to likely be the first successful intrusion onto the White House grounds since the security fence was doubled in height after previous security breaches. A 2-year-old squeezed through the fence and made his way onto the grounds for a brief moment of adventure.
The White House security systems promptly alerted the Secret Service. The spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, said the toddler entered through the north fence.
The toddler was swiftly retrieved by the Secret Service. He was brought to Pennsylvania Avenue and reunited with his parents, who were also asked a few questions.
The White House fence stands at 13 feet tall. There are only 5½ inches in between posts, so the curious little visitor definitely wiggled his way through.
Many people found amusement in the riskiness of the tiny toddler.
"This kids going to win '2 truths and a lie' every single time," one person commented under the Instagram post shared on the Time's page.
"That’s one way to demand paid leave for all lol," another person said.
On another hand, some people took the toddler's mindless wandering as a serious security breach.
"Everyone laughs, and thinks that cute; but never been overseas in the military where toddlers are used to carry bombs inside restricted areas, and blow up everyone… Parents lucky kid didn’t get shot… Especially the state of this country these days," a person commented under a YouTube video posted by WUSA9.
Surprisingly enough, though, this is not the first time a toddler has made their way onto the White House grounds. There were incidents that also occurred in 2014.
During one incident, the White House went on lockdown until the toddler was reunited with his parents. Still, the Secret Service seemed humored by the occurrence.
"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," the US Secret Service spokesperson at the time said.
The fence was last replaced in 2019 by then President Donald Trump. Its cost totaled around $64 million.
