(Ken Silva, Headline USA) An FBI contractor was arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing a government vehicle from FBI headquarters and driving it to another bureau facility in Vienna, Virginia.
The details of the arrest of John Conrad Worrell III are bizarre. According to the FBI’s criminal complaint, Worrell heard “coded messages” before committing his crime.
“WORRELL believed he had been receiving coded messages, which appeared in various forms including e-mails, ‘stage whispering,’ and a variety of different context clues over the course of several weeks, indicating that WORRELL was in danger, and thus he was attempting to go to a secure facility where he could be ‘safe,’” the FBI’s criminal complaint said.
Motivated by those coded messages, Worrell allegedly took the vehicle—a dark green four-door Ford sedan—from FBI HQ around 12:26 p.m. Tuesday. He then drove to Vienna and arrived at another FBI facility about 90 minutes later, the complaint said.
“At approximately 2:02 p.m., the Victim Agent’s vehicle entered the driveway of an FBI facility located in Vienna, Virginia. The Victim Agent’s vehicle approached a guard shack near a movable anti-vehicle barricade,” the complaint said.
“The driver of the stolen FBI-issued vehicle, subsequently identified as JOHN CONRAD WORRELL III, attempted to enter the restricted facility.”
Once he was at the Vienna facility, Worrell identified himself as the agent he stole the car from, the complaint said.
“WORRELL claimed to have a classified meeting at the Vienna FBI facility. When WORRELL was unable to provide FBI access cards that matched the Victim Agent’s identity, WORRELL was denied access to the facility and was directed to park in a nearby visitor lot,” the complaint said.
WORRELL subsequently parked the Victim Agent’s FBI-issued vehicle in the visitor lot at approximately 2:03 p.m. … Over the course of the next 45 minutes, WORRELL was repeatedly approached by security personnel. After repeated requests by security personnel, WORRELL provided his Virginia Driver’s License,” the complaint continued.
Vienna Police Department arrived at the FBI facility at approximately 3:02 p.m. Worrell allegedly admitted his theft soon thereafter.
Later, when interviewed by the FBI, Worrell told agents about hearing the coded messages.
Worrell’s case was first reported by local news in Vienna, and it hasn’t yet been listed on government’s public court docket.
Worrell’s case was assigned for an initial hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey. As of Wednesday afternoon, he had not yet made his first appearance in federal court, according to WUSA9.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
