The FBI’s carefully orchestrated takedown of Ghislaine Maxwell, the accused accomplice and 'pedophile madam’ to the late Jeffrey Epstein, was almost ruined by a neighbor who called the police on the undercover agents amassed near Maxwell’s sprawling New Hampshire property.
The UK tabloid the Daily Mirror reports that Maxwell’s neighbors were annoyed by the sound of planes circling overhead, which started at around 5am on Thursday morning hours before Maxwell was arrested.
A squad of 24 agents decked out in body armor and armed to the teeth were preparing to take the British socialite - who will appear in court on Friday for a bail hearing where she’s expected to be ordered held without bail - into custody when one neighbor approached the group of vehicles amassed on a nearby road, and inquired about what they were doing there.
Apparently the man saw through the FBI’s ruse right away, according to another neighbor who was the Mirror’s apparent source for the story.
One local said: "The planes had been buzzing around since 5am. They were a nuisance. We began calling each other to find out what the noise was about. Finally one snapped and drove down to where the vehicles were lined up.
"He demanded to know who they were and they replied they were from the New England Aerial map society – it was totally fictitious. The problem the FBI had was that the guy is an expert in maps and geology. It’s what he does for a living."
"He saw straight through it and asked to see inside their van but was harshly told it was off-limits. He told his wife, and she called the police on the FBI. It was hilarious."
When the neighbor approached, the agents claimed they were from the New England Aerial map society. When the neighbor asked to see inside their van, the agents gruffly told him that the van was "off limits."
Furious at being denied what he wanted, the man went back home and called the police.
In recent months, a "Karen" has become an insulting label affixed to "privileged" white people who call the police when they don’t get their way.
Except this "Karen" nearly compromised a takedown that cost the US government millions of dollars to plan.
When Maxwell was arrested, she was reportedly wearing jogging bottoms, and was apparently flummoxed as to why a squad of agents might be taking her into custody.
On Monday, a judge ruled that Maxwell will be transferred to the same Manhattan jail where Epstein was held (and where he died) while awaiting trial.
