A thief stole Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse while she was at a D.C. restaurant Sunday night—getting her driver’s license, passport, apartment keys, and about $3,000 in cash.
The astonishing security blunder happened despite Noem, nicknamed “ICE Barbie” for her made-for-TV dressing up stunts, being guarded round the clock by the Secret Service—which reports to her.
She was dining at a downtown Washington, D.C. restaurant called The Capital Burger when the thief struck, CNN reported. Her purse was by her feet and underneath her seat, according to two sources familiar.
As well as a large amount of cash, the thief got her official ID as Homeland Security secretary, medication and make-up.
Noem’s bag also contained medication, her passport, DHS access badge, a makeup bag, and blank checks, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Noem acknowledged the theft during the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, confirming the incident and noting that it remains unresolved but declined to comment further.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Noem had $3,000 in cash and said it was intended for “family dinners, activities, and Easter gifts.”
“We can confirm this happened last night. Her whole family was in town, including her children and grandchildren,” the DHS statement said.
A white man wearing a surgical mask was spotted on security footage reviewed by the Secret Service, a law enforcement source told CNN.
The DHS did not reveal the name of the restaurant where Noem was eating. Noem, 53, is a mother of three adult children and posted a picture on Sunday of them, her husband and four grandchildren. She has faced long-running allegations that she is also in an on-off relationship with hot-tempered one-time Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who, The New York Post revealed, has called himself her chief of staff.
As ICE Barbie Noem has matched carefully curled hair and pancake makeup with bulletproof vests and cowboy hats for photoshoots involving Coastguard patrol boats and planes, ICE armored cars and Border Patrol off-roaders. Others have called her “Cosplay Kristi.”
Trump, who likes staff to look like they came from “central casting,” has however approved, The New York Times reported.
Almost inevitably, the theft prompted amusement and ridicule.
“Besides the cash, she was carrying her makeup bag (that must be huge and weight 10-12 lbs. alone), her passport and blank checks,” Alan P. Balutis, a former managing partner at a consulting group wrote. “Was she leaving right after dinner for another photo op at an El Salvador prison?”
“The makeup bag reportedly took up two parking spaces and her meds filled eight shoeboxes,” Paul Rudnick, an novelist and playwright, wrote.
The theft is the latest in a long line of Secret Service failures, the worst of which was the assassination attempt on Trump in July 2024.
That cost the then-director of the service her job and led to a Congressional inquiry which identified failure after failure.
Republicans have claimed that the District of Columbia is suffering a crime epidemic, although police statistics suggest that most forms of crime are declining year on year. Thefts were down 11% since Jan. 1 compared to the same period last year, latest figures show.
