BEAVER, Pa. — Before his scheduled appearance at Carnegie Mellon University Friday afternoon, President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Beaver County.
Obama’s motorcade passed through Third Street just before 1 p.m. Friday.
The president stopped at Kretchmar’s Bakery downtown. Those who were inside the bakery at the time were allowed to stay. Everyone else watched from outside.
“I’ll be right back. I just have to get some pie,” Obama said as he exited his bus.
Obama asked third generation bakery owner Lincoln Kretchmar, 36, which pies he had.
The president ended up buying an apple pie, as well as chocolate chip cookies. The total was $13.20, which Obama paid for with a $20 bill and left the change.
“We had no idea he was coming until five minutes before he showed up. So until the secret service came in and said they had to sweep the building, we had no idea,” Kretchmar said. “They brought in a bomb-sniffing dog and checked out the building from top to bottom. They borrowed a ladder, went up in the attic and checked all the rest of our stuff.”
Obama asked Kretchmar how business was going. "It's not great, but it's not bad. We're holding our own," the bakery owner told Mr. Obama.
“Since he took time out of his day to say hello, we felt we should give him something. So we gave him a cake that said, “Welcome, Mr. President,” Kretchmar said. “We had to hurry and get one made. It took us about five minutes to put together. Hopefully he’ll enjoy it.”
Overall, Obama was in the bakery for about 12 minutes, then went outside to greet residents who had lined the street.
On the way to Beaver from Poland, Ohio, the president's campaign announced it would provide cookies from Bethel Bakery to the press, cookies that Mitt Romney had briefly snubbed during a campaign visit in the spring.
Obama left for his scheduled appearance at CMU just before 2 p.m.
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