Fence jumper roamed grounds for 17 minutes

Also, officials say laptop stolen from Secret Service agent.

A California man carrying Mace roamed for nearly 17 minutes inside the secured White House perimeter before he was taken into custody near the South Portico entrance, the Secret Service acknowledged Friday.

Jonathan T. Tran, 26, of Milpitas, Calif., walked the grounds of the White House between 11:21 p.m. and 11:38 p.m. ET before being arrested, the Secret Service said in its statement.

The revelation came as the law enforcement officials reported that a laptop with sensitive security information on it was stolen from a Secret Service agent in New York City, prompting a multiagency investigation to try to retrieve it.

The Secret Service said in a statement that “an employee was the victim of a criminal act in which our agency-issued laptop computer was stolen.’’

The agency tried to dispel concerns about the security risks posed by the theft, saying agents’ laptops “contain multiple layers of security including full disk encryption and are not permitted to contain classified information.’’

The agency did not say what sensitive information might be on the laptop, but one law enforcement official said it contained building and security plans for Trump Tower, home of President Donald Trump and his family.

The official said the laptop was stolen from a vehicle in the driveway of the agent’s home in Brooklyn on Thursday morning. The computer was in a bag that was later recovered, but the laptop was no longer in it, the official said. A personal laptop was also in the bag and taken by the thief, but officials are less concerned about the data on that device, the official said.

Authorities have recovered video of a man walking away with the bag, and they are chasing a number of leads to try to find him, the official said.

The report of an intensive search for the device came as a House oversight committee ordered the Secret Service to preserve documents and deliver a full briefing Monday about a March 10 episode at the executive mansion.

In a letter Friday to Acting U.S. Secret Service Director William J. Callahan, House Committee on Oversight on Government Reform chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said his panel had received potentially troubling allegations about security protocols in which a California man was arrested near the South Portico entrance.

“I worry this is the worst one yet,” Chaffetz said. “The time on the White House grounds really concerns me. With the President in the White House the intruder was evidently able to hide behind a pillar and get to a door undetected. The problem has persisted for years and is totally unacceptable. It scares me.”