4. A tourist from Colorado wandered the halls of the White House during Ronald Reagan’s inauguration celebrations after being mistakenly allowed entry alongside the Marine Corps Band
An engineer from Colorado, in 1985 Robert Latta decided to take a vacation to Washington D.C to coincide with the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan on January 20. Standing among the crowds near the White House gates on Pennsylvania Avenue, in the spur of the moment, Latta was motivated to attempt a closer look at the ceremony and events unfolding before him. Noticing the thirty-three members of the Marine Corps Band entering the gates without rigorous security checks, Latta joined the group and followed them inside. Leading the Coloradan tourist into the White House, Latta was directed up a staircase and into a hall.
Still carrying his overnight bag, the excited Latta was left to freely wander the Executive Residence for a full fourteen minutes, before being eventually stopped by a member of security who inquired whether the ill-dressed and out of place man had been invited. Responding truthfully, allegedly stating “I thought if I wasn’t supposed to be there, somebody would stop me”, Latta was apprehended by the Secret Service and taken into custody by the FBI. Charged with one count of unlawful entry, the bemused Latta later said of the incident that although it was a “mistake” it had also been “the high point of being in Washington”.