Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Mosquito "Rats Out" Car Thief

This is a great story. A car thief in Finland thought he had committed the perfect crime. He stole an automobile and left absolutely no evidence or witnesses that the police could find. At least, that's what he thought -- but he was "ratted out" by an insect.

The thief stole the car in Lapua -- about 235 miles north of Helsinki. Several weeks later, police found the car about 25 miles from Lapua, in Seinaejoki. But police had no clue as to who had taken the car -- until one of them noticed a mosquito that had been trapped inside the abandoned vehicle.

They noticed the mosquito had recently filled up on someone's blood. They had a crazy idea. Could DNA be recovered from blood a mosquito had sucked from a human? They captured the mosquito and sent it to the lab. Sure enough, blood was recovered and a DNA profile was developed.

The DNA profile was matched to a known criminal whose DNA was on file with the police. He has now been arrested. The thief is still denying the crime (says he was only a hitchhiker picked up in the car). Maybe he'll get lucky with a Finnish jury, but personally, I think the mosquito has "nailed" him for this crime.

He left one witness too many -- the mosquito!

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