The White House has a theft problem.
A recent article in the Washington Post spotlights the many items that guests at the White House fall victim to stealing in an effort to leave 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with some sort of memento of their time at the president’s home.
Individuals have been known to lift towels from the washrooms, utensils from large events, vermeil eagle place-card holders, cut-glass pieces ornamenting the women’s bathroom, and even wooden eggs from the annual Easter Egg Roll.
The thievery doesn’t stop at the White House. It also extends to Air Force One, from which travelers — usually reporters, staffers and other lawmakers — take drinking glasses and pillowcases.
The White House Historical Association’s chief historian William Bushong labeled the stealing a longtime problem, one that extends back to the earliest days of the White House’s existence.
“This has been an issue since the White House opened and John Adams began entertaining people,” Bushong explained. “The main temptation is the fact that you want to have something that is a memento, that gives you a connection to that experience you had in the house. The temptation is just irresistible.”
And, it’s evidently a temptation escaped by no one. After all, broadcast journalist Barbara Walters became infamous for taking the washroom towels, as did actress Meryl Streep.
The White House, where kleptomania abounds.
Thievery at the president’s home has long been a problem, with guests pilfering anything from towels in the White … in Red Alert Politics’s Hangs on LockerDome
