An Easter dinner out with family turned into a big embarrassment for Kristi Noem and the Secret Service, as a thief stole the Department of Homeland Security chief’s handbag and the big stack of cash and various other sensitive items it contained. At Monday’s Easter Egg Roll at the White House, Noem confirmed the theft but told NBC News, “I don’t think I can comment on it yet. It’s not resolved yet.”
The crime unfolded Sunday night as Noem was eating with her extended family at Darden Restaurants-owned Capital Burger on Seventh Street NW in Washington DC. When it was over, Noem was without her large “Gucci B” shoulder bag (some of which retail for $4,400), a $600 Louis Vitton Clemence Purse, and valuable contents that included roughly $3,000 in cash, her DHS badge, passport, driver’s license, credit cards, blank checks, medicine and apartment keys. “Her entire family was in town including her children and grandchildren,” DHS told the New York Times via email. “She was using the cash withdrawal to treat her family to dinner, activities and Easter gifts.”
A law enforcement source told the Post that a review of security camera footage captured a white man in an N-95 mask, dark pants, a “fur-type” collar and ball cap pulling off the crime. Around 7:55pm, he entered Capital Burger and headed up a few stairs to the area where Noem was dining. After sitting near her, he maneuvered his chair close to hers and surreptitiously used his foot to nudge her handbag toward him. A few minutes later, he picked it up, tucked it inside his jacket, walked out the door and down the street. Noem had just finished settling the tab when she felt something brush against her leg; at that moment, she thought it was a grandchild, sources told the New York Post.
In addition to embarrassing the woman responsible for securing the homeland, the theft is the latest in a long-running series of failures of the Secret Service, which is itself a DHS agency. While her detail is considerably smaller than that of the president or vice president, Noem is least nominally under round-the-clock Secret Service “protection.” At least two agents in street clothes were sitting at the Capital Burger’s bar, somewhere between the front doors and Noem’s table, a witness told NBC News, adding that the eatery wasn’t particularly crowded when the incident occurred.
Former Secret Service agent Don Mihalek said protective details are often asked to keep a lower profile at personal events versus official ones. “They tend to give those people a lot more room, especially in a social setting,” he told the Washington Post. “They’re not going to stand over her while she’s having Easter dinner with the family.” However true that may be, when you consider how close he was able to seat himself, Noem is clearly fortunate this guy was apparently just a thief and not an armed, violent leftist outraged over Noem’s role in turning the tide against illegal immigration.
Happy Easter! Wishing Christians around the country joyful celebrations for the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.
He is risen! pic.twitter.com/EKsRlvTVhW
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) April 20, 2025
The Secret Service is now investigating the theft — and presumably itself too. Given the nature of the victim, the agency isn’t assuming this was necessarily a garden-variety purse-grab: Investigators want to know if the thief knew the significance of his victim.
Speaking of her high profile, Noem has a reputation as the Trump cabinet’s foremost publicity-seeker, stringing together a dense portfolio of photo ops depicting her donning a wide variety of tight-fitting uniforms and outfits — so much so that she’s earned the nicknames “Cosplay Kristi” and “ICE Barbie.” However, making headlines by failing to secure her own overpriced handbag, $3,000 in cash and DHS access badge isn’t exactly the kind of buzz she’s looking for.
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