The White House has faced its second security alert in a week after a man was arrested trying to climb a bike rack outside the grounds.
According to the Security Service, the man has been charged with unlawful entry even though he did not manage to get onto the estate.
The Security Service played down the incident saying the rack was set back from the perimeter fence making it unlikely that any intruder could have gained access to the grounds.
However the incident took place days after a drone crash landed on the White House estate, leading to a lockdown while it was examined.
In that case the owner of the drone said that the crash landing was an accident and that he had not intended it to land at the White House.
The latest incident was low key compared to that involving Omar Gonzalez who scaled the perimeter fence and, armed with a knife, got into the White House itself in September.
Gonazalez was at least the 36th person to have clambered over the fence since 1973.
Even though President Barack Obama and his family were not present at the time, a review of the incident by the Department of Homeland Security laid bare an array of astonishing lapses.
They included the revelation that the first security guard who should have intercepted the intruder was in a van making a call on his mobile phone.
That security breach, and inconsistencies in the Secret Service's account of the September 19 incident, led to the resignation of Julia Pierson, the Secret Service's director.
(Telegraph)
