Secret Service intercedes as reporters descend on Mitt Romney's beachfront house

A planned multimillion-dollar renovation of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's San Diego home made national headlines last year. That construction still has not started, but a rival campaign recently presented Politico with copies of documents that are on file with the city of San Diego and contain previously unreported details about the project.

For example, Politico revealed Tuesday that the blueprints call for the construction of "a split-level, four-vehicle garage that comes with a 'car lift' to transport automobiles between floors."

However, Politico held off on publsihing the actual blueprints due to "operational security" concerns after "the U.S. Secret Service, in a coordinated appeal with the Romney campaign, requested that Politico not publish the specific plans."

Part of the reason Politico had a reporter on the ground in San Diego in recent days is because Team Romney was holding official campaign events in the San Diego area late last week. For the same reason, New York Times reporter Ashley Parker was also in San Diego — and on Monday she passed by the Romney property to have a look for herself.

"A visit to the Romneys’ beachside property on Monday," Parker reported, "revealed a modest home for the wealthy enclave (at least from a street view) at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. … On Monday, no signs of Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, could be found, though a group of teenagers smoking cigarettes sunned themselves against the seawall, and a homeless man set up camp a bit further down the beach."