A vigilant night watchman’s interest A clip of duct tape on the door of the Democratic Party headquarters building in Washington exposed the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. 17, 1972.
Behind the failed “theft” was a high-capacity scam he discovered. White House officials have hired five people to plant spyware and photograph internal documents in a bid to find information targeting Nixon’s opponents.
Two years later, for the first time in the country’s history, a Republican leader accused of trying to whitewash the case was forced to resign to avoid the humiliation of his shooting.
– “A level pasted on the door”
On the night of June 16-17, 1972, 24-year-old policeman Frank Wells, on his regular tour of the corridors of the majestic Watergate building in the US capital, noticed a clip of duct tape on the door lock. An underground prevents it from being locked.
At first it did not give him tension so he took off the tape and put it in his shirt pocket and went on his way.
However, when he returned, he noticed another scrap and suspected he was involved in a robbery attempt. Call the police immediately. Welles played his role for a few seconds in the opening part of the film “All the President Men” starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.
“I found a scrap of duct tape on a door and called the police for a search,” he wrote in the Watergate register in the National Archives.
Police officer John Barrett told ABC News in a 2017 interview that he arrived at the scene “within a minute or a minute and a half.”
He was in civilian clothes with his colleague Paul Lieber.
This probably worked in their favor; Alfred Baldwin, who was supposed to be on patrol during the five-man infiltration, did not immediately see them. Maybe he was interested in watching a horror movie on TV.
“He was watching TV,” Barrett said. It was too late when he told the others, so they ran and hid like rats.
– Adrenaline
Upon entering the building, two police officers noticed clips of duct tape on several doors. Felt that something was suspicious.
“The adrenaline has risen suddenly,” Paul Lieber told ABC.
They found the offices randomly searched and suspected the men were still inside the building. Farha looks for them one after the other in the hall.
Suddenly John Paris saw a hand. He said: I was so scared. I might have screamed (raise your hands and go out, or I will hit you on the head). “Ten hands went up and they came out,” he said.
Across the street, the individual Baldwin had his walkie-talkie.
And he described: “They arrested us,” I heard a voice whisper.
– Tear smoke
Five: James McCart, Virgilio Gonzalez, Frank Sturkis, Eugenio Martins and Bernard Parker.
As John Barrett emphasized, both officers quickly realized that this was not a “normal occurrence.”
He described the five men as uniforms and ties, “hearing aids, teardrop pens, lots of film reels, equipment used to fix doors and locks, and thousands of dollars on $ 100 bills.”
On June 18, 1972, The Washington Post published its first article on the subject.
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