Hill District car thief Lashawn Norwood admitted Wednesday that he stole an FBI vehicle from Schenley Park two years ago.
An agent’s guns were inside the car at the time and one of them turned up missing, but it has been recovered as part of an ongoing investigation, the FBI said.
Norwood is not charged in connection with the gun.
He had been indicted in 2022 on one count of theft of government property and pleaded guilty to that charge before U.S. District Judge Mark Hornak.
Prosecutors said Norwood, 57, stole an unmarked Ford Explorer belonging to the bureau on Sept. 28, 2021, from the Schenley Park Oval. Police recovered it a short time later in the Hill. A gun assigned to an agent was missing.
A forensic exam of the vehicle turned up Norwood’s DNA on the driver’s side exterior door handle and the steering wheel, although Norwood told the FBI he wasn’t inside.
The agent’s gun was recovered by Pittsburgh police on Nov. 12, 2021, after a mail carrier found it in a post office box in Allegheny West.
Judge Hornak hasn’t set a sentencing date for Norwood.
He has a history of stealing cars and taking things from cars. After leading Pittsburgh police on a chase in 2013, the city’s auto squad said they had been seeking him on charges of stealing Subarus, which seemed to be his car of choice.
He has a record for auto theft, theft from a motor vehicle, receiving stolen property and other crimes dating to 2010.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
