[ad_1]
Washington — A federal contractor working for the FBI has been arrested after allegedly stealing an FBI automobile from bureau headquarters Tuesday afternoon.
Later, a handgun journal belonging to the agent who drove the automobile was discovered contained in the automobile, charging paperwork filed Wednesday revealed.
John Worrell, of Virginia, labored for an out of doors authorities contracting company and was assigned to FBI headquarters, prosecutors stated, when he allegedly stole the darkish inexperienced four-door Ford sedan from an FBI storage and drove to a different FBI facility in Vienna, Virginia. There, investigators say Worrell displayed the credentials of the federal agent to whom the automobile was assigned and tried to realize entry to the power.
Worrell is not an FBI agent or a legislation enforcement officer, however he was licensed to be on the bureau’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., due to his work as a contractor.
He “claimed to have a labeled assembly on the Vienna FBI facility,” however didn’t have the mandatory entry playing cards, prompting officers to disclaim him entry there, in accordance with court docket paperwork. Worrell allegedly tried to enter the Vienna facility a second time and after once more being denied, he spent about 45 minutes within the parking space.
Worrell later supplied his actual identification to safety officers on the Vienna facility, who referred to as the police.
Prosecutors alleged that in a consensual search of the FBI-issued automobile by police, officers uncovered a “loaded handgun journal” from a fanny pack contained in the automobile that belonged to the unnamed agent who drives the automobile. Courtroom paperwork indicated Worrell wasn’t conscious that the journal was inside, since he instructed officers he was not conscious of any weapons within the automobile.
Throughout an interview, Worrell instructed investigators he “believed he had been receiving coded messages, which appeared in numerous kinds together with e-mails, ‘stage whispering,’ and a wide range of completely different context clues over the course of a number of weeks, indicating that [he] was at risk, and thus he was trying to go to a safe facility the place he may very well be ‘protected,'” in accordance with charging paperwork.
Investigators stated in court docket paperwork that restricted parking on the FBI headquarters requires keys to be left inside automobiles parked in its storage “to permit automobiles to be moved by licensed personnel on an as-needed foundation.” The unnamed agent’s credentials had been additionally inside.
After discovering the automobile was lacking at 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday, the FBI agent searched the storage and alerted safety at 2:22 p.m., practically two hours after safety digicam footage seen after the incident confirmed the automobile leaving headquarters.
Throughout his interview with investigators, Worrell admitted that he didn’t have permission to make use of the automobile, in accordance with court docket paperwork. It’s unclear if he’s nonetheless employed by the unnamed authorities contracting company.
Final yr, an FBI agent was carjacked in a Washington, D.C., neighborhood after two people held the agent at gunpoint amid a surge of automobile thefts within the nation’s capital. The automobile was discovered lower than an hour later, a few mile from the positioning of the theft.
An lawyer for Worrell couldn’t be instantly recognized.
The FBI declined to touch upon this report and referred CBS Information to court docket data.
[ad_2]
Source link