BERLIN (AP) – German police say they have solved a nine-year-old burglary after DNA found on a half-eaten piece of sausage matched that of a man detained in France for an unrelated crime.
Police in the western city of Schwelm said on Thursday that the sausage belonged to the victim, and that the suspect – a 30-year-old Albanian citizen – apparently helped himself to a bite during the March 2012 burglary.
It was not clear what kind of sausage – known in Germany as sausage – the burglar had nibbled on, although police said it was a hard variety.
Investigators were recently warned that French police had taken a similar DNA sample from a man involved in a violent crime.
But the Schwelm police said the suspect remains free and in the wurst case he can escape punishment. The statute of limitations for the burglary has expired, which means that he will probably not be extradited to Germany.