And we thought our Secret Service agents have problems.
Agents assigned to protect French newly-elected President Francois Hollande at the Rio Earth conference in Brazil forgot to pack their weapons, according to the Daily Mail. This means if an attack occurred on the French leader, his protectors would have been essentially waving around wooden pistols like Will Ferrell in “The Other Guys.”
The GSPR (Security Group of the President of the Republic), an elite group of secret agents tasked with ensuring the safety of the President, thought their guns were safely stored in suitcases. When the agents attempted to retrieve their weapons after passing through customs, they discovered their dangerous mistake.
To make matters worse, Brazil has the reputation of having audacious gun-toting criminals, which only unsettled the agents even more. Moreover, the French President has faced many threats in the past, including multiple assassination attempts, which in turn lead to the creation of the GSPR in 1983.
The GSPR agent responsible for the mishap was promptly fired upon return to France.