Admits or admits to? - Wordsmith.org

The Charlotte paper had a story that led off:

A Charlotte woman admitted Thursday to stealing another woman's identity and using it to by a Lincoln Continental.

Is the first to in the sentence correct? I would not have put it in there, though if I had written pled guilty instead of admitted I would have used. And if I had said confessed, but I don't think it's correct to add the word to to the verb admit. Any thoughts?

Also, a Continentl? A woman of absolutely no taste! If you are gonna steal steal a real car like a Lamborghini. Speaking of which, a neighbor of mine is bringing his Lambo up from SC next week and has told me I can drive it!!!!!

It seems a bit more eloquent with the 'to' included, and although 'admitted to' and 'confessed to' are synonymous, 'admitted' alone can be more ambiguous in meaning, ne c'est pas ?

I observe that some prepositions in this kind of context are subject to periPondian idiosyncrasy:

"...if there is an institution in Great Britain which is not susceptible of any improvement at all, it is the House of Peers!" (emphasis added)

But I digress.

I think you could go either way. Some publications may have style manuals that prefer one to the the other.

Hear! Hear! Faldage hit it on the button.
In newspapers/print media space is a concern
so the "to" is superfluous and a bit too too!
Fer'instance, most Editors warn against "located at" as "at" stand alone perfectly well.
"The theater is at 27 Pleasant Street"

To my ears, "admitted to " has a ring of legalese about it. It goes well with "helping police with their inquiries"

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I think both 'admitted stealing' and 'admitted to stealing' are acceptable, but 'admitted' and 'stealing' being separated by another word makes the 'to' obligatory.

Actually I find the fact that there's no 'on' with 'Thursday' and the confusion between 'by' and 'buy' far more disturbing.

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I think both 'admitted stealing' and 'admitted to stealing' are acceptable, but 'admitted' and 'stealing' being separated by another word makes the 'to' obligatory.

Actually I find the fact that there's no 'on' with 'Thursday' and the confusion between 'by' and 'buy' far more disturbing.

The version without the 'on' is common USn journalistic style, the 'by' for 'buy' is a perfect example of the inadequacy of spell-checkers.