A Mosquito bites, enters history books.

Tuesday, 23 December 2008 15:00

Written by maverick58

Finnish police believe they have caught a car-thief thanks to a DNA sample taken from a sample of his blood found inside a mosquito. The mosquito was asked politely to give a sample of the blood and she readily agreed. But before that some history.

Sometime in June a car was stolen in Lapua, some 380 kilometres north of Helsinki. It was soon found abandoned near a railway station in Seinaejoki, about 25 kilometres from where it was stolen.

“A police patrol carried out an inspection of the car and they noticed a mosquito that had sucked blood. After getting the requisite permission from the she-mosquito, she was sent to the laboratory for testing, which showed the blood belonged to a man who was in the police registers,” inspector Sakari Palomaeki said. The mosquito, survived the ordeal and has been awarded the Biggest Crime Scene Witness and Bravery Award.

The suspect, who has been interrogated, has insisted he did not steal the car, saying he had hitchhiked and was given a lift by a man driving the car.

Palomaeki said a prosecutor would decide if the evidence was solid enough for charges to be pressed.

Finnish police said it was rare for them to use insects to solve crimes, although they are interested in everything found at a crime scene.

“It is not usual to use mosquitoes. In training we were not told to keep an eye on mosquitoes at crime scenes,” Palomaeki said, laughing.

“It is not easy to find a small mosquito in a car, this just shows how thorough the crime scene investigation was but this mosquito helped by gaining our attention with its incessant buzzing,” he added. The rest as they say, is history. Latest reports suggest that she may be knighted and will be known as Dame She.

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