A vigilant night security guard, whose curiosity sparked a clip of duct tape on a door in a building housing the Democratic Party headquarters in Washington, contributed to the disclosure of the Watergate scandal - which caused the resignation of the late US President Richard Nixon - after the police contacted them on June 17, 1972 to inform them of what he saw.

And it turned out that behind the "botched robbery" that the guard discovered was a heavy-caliber scandal, as officials linked to the White House assigned 5 men to plant spy tools and take pictures of internal documents in search of information implicating opponents of Nixon.

Two years later, for the only time in the country's history, the Republican president - accused of trying to obliterate the case - was forced to resign to avoid the humiliation of his dismissal.


Adhesive tape

The story goes back to the evening of June 16, 1972, when guard Frank Wells, 24, was on his regular tour in the corridors of the prestigious Watergate Building in the American capital, when he noticed a clip of duct tape on a door lock in the underground floor, which prevented it from being locked.

It didn't make him anxious at first, so he removed the tape, put it in his pocket, and went on his way.

But upon his return, he noticed another scrap, and then he suspected an attempt to steal, and immediately called the police.

Wells played his role for a few seconds in the prequel to "All the President's Men," starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.

"I found a scrap of duct tape on a door, and called the police for a search," he wrote in the Watergate Register in the National Archives.

Within a minute or a minute and a half, police officers John Barrett and Paul Lieber arrived at the scene in civilian clothes, police officer John Barrett told ABC News in a 2017 interview.

This likely worked to their advantage because Alfred Baldwin, who was supposed to be on guard duty during the Five Men's incursion, did not see them immediately.

Perhaps he was interested in watching a horror movie on TV.

"He was staring at the TV," Constable Barrett said of Baldwin. "It was too late when he told the others, so they ran and hid like mice."


high adrenaline

When they entered the building, the two policemen noticed clips of duct tape on several doors, and realized that something was suspicious.

Paul Lieber told ABC News, "The adrenaline went up all of a sudden, when we discovered that offices were being searched randomly and suspected that the men were still inside the building, we were looking forward to looking for them in room after room."

He added, "Suddenly my colleague John Paris spotted an arm, and although we felt great fear, I screamed, saying: Get out with your hands raised, or I will hit you in the head."

He explained that "10 hands rose and came out" from their hiding place.

The five arrested were James McCord, Virgilio Gonzalez, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio Martinis and Bernard Parker.

The two officers quickly realized that this was not an "ordinary event", as John Barrett asserted.

He said the five men were dressed in uniforms and ties, with listening devices, tear pens, plenty of film reels, equipment used to repair doors and locks, and thousands of dollars in $100 bills.

On June 18, 1972, the Washington Post published its first article on the subject.

It was signed by journalist Alfred E. Lewis who covers police cases.

But Bob Woodward and Karl Bernstein are on the list of his collaborators.

The two young reporters then took up the case and investigated the details of the file, and won the prestigious "Pulitzer" prize for the newspaper for their investigations into this scandal that toppled Richard Nixon and his presidency.