A 36-year-old York Township woman has been sentenced to one and a half to five years in state prison after a bizarre chain of events that began with her picking peppers from a stranger’s garden and ended with troopers finding two stolen handguns, suspected methamphetamine and a partially consumed bottle of alcohol inside the stolen car she was driving. Kimberly Schwartz was found guilty on July 20 of a lengthy list of charges stemming from the August 2025 incident in Strasburg Township, Lancaster County.
According to the Office of Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams, Schwartz pleaded guilty to driving a stolen car containing multiple stolen firearms onto a Strasburg Township residence. As reported by Fox43, Schwartz began picking peppers from the residence in August 2025 and left in her vehicle without paying for them. A separate account from Daily Voice fills in more detail on how the encounter unfolded on the ground.
How the Pepper Theft Unraveled
Per a Lancaster County District Attorney statement relayed by Daily Voice, the incident happened around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 21, 2025, on the 900 block of Strasburg Pike. Schwartz pulled into the victim’s driveway, entered an attached garage to grab a five-gallon bucket, and began harvesting peppers from the garden. When the resident offered to sell her the produce, the same account notes, Schwartz instead drove off without paying.
The victim’s quick thinking proved decisive. Police received photos of the vehicle from the scene shortly after the call, and the outlet’s report indicates Pennsylvania State Police troopers located Schwartz in a nearby Strasburg Township parking lot within an hour, matching her and the car to the photograph the victim had taken.
Resisting Arrest and a Refused Chemical Test
Troopers displayed erratic behavior concerns about Schwartz almost immediately, according to police accounts. During her arrest, the same reporting details, Schwartz repeatedly unbuckled her seatbelt, refused to walk, and pulled away from troopers, forcing officers to place her in a caged police vehicle for transport. She was ultimately found guilty of resisting arrest and false identification to a law enforcement officer, Fox43 reports, after initially giving a false name…