Chinese police catch burglar with DNA from mosquitoes that bit him

The burglar had cooked a meal and stayed for the night at the apartment he had broken in

In a rare development, police in China were able to trace a burglar by means of DNA testing of the blood acquired from two mosquitoes that had bit him during the heist.

It was on June 11 that a thief broke into a house in Fuzhou town in Fujian province and stole several valuables, South China Morning Post reported.

The police found the door of the residence closed when they arrived at the scene, as the thief had entered the apartment via balcony.

Unusually, the burglar cooked noodles and eggs, used a blanket, spent the night there and lit mosquito coils.

Police, as they were looking for clues, found two dead mosquitoes and blood smears on the wall of the living room.

As the paint was fresh, police got to the conclusion that the blood must be of the burglar and then sent it for DNA testing.

 

The samples matched with that of a well-known criminal, Chai who was detained soon after. A thorough questioning let the thief to confess to the break-in as well as four other burglaries.

For the people on Chinese social media, the fact that he stayed at the apartment for the night was amusing.

“How dare he spend the night at the scene,” one person said. “This person really has serious psychological issues.”

Another joked, “It is revenge from the mosquitoes; I was wrong to think that mosquitoes are useless.”

DNA testing has often proved to be a key tool for the law enforcement in the country to solve crime.

In recent years, over 10 per cent of criminal cases in China relied on the technology for crucial evidence.