We arrived in DC when it was too late to do anything but eat and try to locate the White House. After jumping on 15 different buildings with excited yelps of, “Is this it?” and making it abundantly clear that we were total country bumpkins, we finally found it.
The White House turned out to be a lot smaller than we’d imagined from seeing it on TV. We didn’t get a chance to take a good, long look, though, because one of the people taking photos of the building had a brilliant idea to leave a weirdly shaped bag lying unattended on the pavement.
“I hope it’s not a bomb!” I told N.
A security guard noticed the bag, too, and started getting nervous.
“Whose bag is this?” he started asking the visitors.
The bag’s owner (who later turned out to be a very rude and vulgar young person) stood there gawking and failing to claim the bag.
The security guards really freaked at that point and began to clear the area. The bag’s owner finally claimed it, looking very put upon and trying to get as obnoxious as possible. After that, the guards obviously didn’t let anybody approach.
Clarissa's Blog 
If the Secret Service had been doing its job watching the visitors’ area properly, the tourist would have been confronted as soon as he/she sat the bag down. That’s what they get paid for.
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