![](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/01\/06\/us\/politics\/06dc-protest-blog-barnett\/06dc-protest-blog-barnett-articleLarge.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThroughout the late afternoon, rioters repeatedly emerged from the Capitol bearing trophies that they had stolen. A few carried \u201cArea Closed\u201d signs that they had grabbed and then stormed past. But it was anything taken from Speaker Nancy Pelosi\u2019s office that was especially popular with the crowd.<\/p>\n
One person emerged holding up a piece of a wooden plaque that marked the entrance to Ms. Pelosi\u2019s office, which someone appeared to have torn off a wall. The rioter held it up like a trophy, as hundreds of people on the steps below cheered wildly. \u201cNot our speaker!\u201d shouted one woman. \u201cGet her out!\u201d shouted another man.<\/p>\n
Richard Bigo Barnett, 60, from Gravette, Ark., stood outside the Capitol, his shirt ripped open and his chest bared to the cold, loudly bragging about how he had broken into the speaker\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wrote her a nasty note, put my feet up on her desk,\u201d said Mr. Barnett, who goes by the nickname Bigo. He was brandishing an envelope with the speaker\u2019s letterhead that he had taken from Ms. Pelosi\u2019s office. He insisted he had not stolen it \u2014 \u201cI put a quarter on her desk.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mr. Barnett continued: When the police came in with pepper spray, \u201cI said, \u2018I paid for this, it\u2019s mine, and I left.\u2019\u201d His face was puffy from being hit with pepper spray, but he was laughing as he entertained fellow protesters with his tale.<\/p>\n
His account was backed up by a picture later posted on social media that showed Mr. Barnett sitting at Ms. Pelosi\u2019s desk with his feet up, just as he had described.<\/p>\n
Mr. Barnett insisted that he had just been knocking on the door when he was pushed in by the crowd. It was a story he knew no one would buy. \u201cI\u2019ll probably be telling them this is what happened all the way to the D.C. jail,\u201d Mr. Barnett said.<\/p>\n