I've recently re-discovered the detective in me and the yearning to become as cool as Sydney Bristow from Alias, here's why: we've discovered there is a high profile diplomat or maybe someone on Obama's cabinet on my street that gets 24 hour secret service type surveillance! A few months ago (we think around January 20th sometime, interestingly enough) Laney, Mandy (roommates), and I noticed a black SUV with two guys in suits with earpieces parked on our street quite often. Laney noticed them at 5 am when she goes to the gym, I noticed them getting home late at night, etc. We thought...hm...who are they and who are they watching? They always park at different spots and sides of the street so we didn't really know specifically which house(s) they were watching, but our curiousity kept us watching them. I visited the secret service website to find out who is entitled to 24-hour surveillance. Here's what I found out:
Today, the Secret Service is authorized by law to protect:
- The president, the vice president, (or other individuals next in order of succession to the Office of the President), the president-elect and vice president-elect
- The immediate families of the above individuals
- Former presidents and their spouses for their lifetimes, except when the spouse remarries. In 1997, Congressional legislation became effective limiting Secret Service protection to former presidents for a period of not more than 10 years from the date the former president leaves office
- Children of former presidents until age 16
- Visiting heads of foreign states or governments and their spouses traveling with them, other distinguished foreign visitors to the United States, and official representatives of the United States performing special missions abroad
- Major presidential and vice presidential candidates, and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election
- Other individuals as designated per Executive Order of the President
- National Special Security Events, when designated as such by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
Kind of exciting wondering if any of those people lived on my street, huh!? So one night last week Julie (sister), Kim (cousin), Ben (significant other), and I were playing tennis at the park right by my house and I noticed the SUV parked in the parking lot (it was about 9pm). I'm freaking out, wondering if its someone in the park or something and in the meantime Ben decides we should just go up to them and ask them who they are and what they're doing. Here are the answers we got: 1. They are not secret service, but are "of the like" 2. They do 24 hour surveillance of someone on my street 3. The person they are watching is in neither House nor Senate 4. We "shouldn't be alarmed."
The next development: last Monday for FHE we went door to door on behalf of the "Save the Aurora Hills Library" campaign to get petition signatures. The county is doing budget cuts and wants to cut our library hours in half so some members of the church organized this campaign. We were encouraged to go on our streets to get to know our neighbors and I thought, PERFECT! Laney and I had narrowed it down to a few houses on this one side of the street and so I realized this would be the perfect opportunity to go up to those doors, find out who lives there, and get their name and signature on our petition! We had considered taking around cookies, casually playing the "we're new in the neighborhood" card, pretending to be JW's, selling girl scout cookies, etc. to try to go find out who it is, but never did anything until now. So as we (Jane, Ashley, and I) go up the the first of the suspected houses, I see the black SUV parked down the street start to pull out. As we were at the door they drove by really slowly and were totally watching us. The circled around and went back to their parking spot as we left the house and went on to the next houses. BAM...knew what house they're watching. A nice lady answered the door and we explained what we were doing. She said her husband wasn't home and that they were from out of town and that the owners of the house wouldn't be back until later that evening...a little fishy if you ask me. Why would it matter if her husband is ho
me if they are from out of town? There were to cars from Pennsylvania parked in the driveway that I had noticed in the past...also fishy. So we continued down the street getting signatures and we had the urge to ask people about who lived in that house, but didn't do it. So needless to say, we now know what house they're watching, but still don't know who it is. We'll get to the bottom of this! Actually, maybe we shouldn't because we might end up dead. Kidding. Go US Secret Service (and anyone "of the like")!
