June 17, 1972, was an infamous date in American politics. On this faithful night, Richard Nixon pushed the boundaries of the Oval Office's power too far. According to Washing post article written the day of the break in by Alfred E. Lewis, "Five men, one of whom said he is a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, were arrested at 2:30 a.m. yesterday in what authorities described as an elaborate plot to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee here." The three men that broke into the office were, "native-born Cubans and another was said to have trained Cuban exiles for guerrilla activity after the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion." (28)Fortunately, soon after breaking into the office, they were immediately, "surprised at gunpoint by three plain-clothes officers of the metropolitan police department in a sixth floor office at the plush Watergate,2600 Virginia Ave., NW, where the Democratic National Committee occupies the entire floor." (29).
Police could not find a reason as to why anyone would want to break into the office. The files were, "not of a sensitive variety" although there are "financial records and other such information." (30) The Burglars climbed through ceiling tiles to gain access to the room. The police reported they were all wearing black gloves and, "Police said the men had with them at least two sophisticated devices capable of picking up and transmitting all talk, including telephone conversations. In addition, police found lock-picks and door jimmies, almost $2,300 in cash, most of it in $100 bills with the serial numbers in sequence." (31)