Blood From Mosquito Traps Car Thief

Frosty Piss writes "Police in Finland have made an arrest for car theft based on a DNA sample taken from the blood found inside a mosquito. 'A police patrol carried out an inspection of the car and they noticed a mosquito that had sucked blood. It was sent to the laboratory for testing, which showed the blood belonged to a man who was in the police registers,' a police officer told reporters. 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. I'm wondering if the suspect should have denied any association with the car at all. After all, who knows where that mosquito had been?"

Comments

I can see it now:

[Ethanol-fueled]

[ Intro to latest CSI: Miami episode as ripped from the headlines: ]

Police officer: "We were able to extract the suspect's blood from a mosquito found in the car."

David Caruso: "Heh heh heh..."

David Caruso: "SUCKERRRRR!"

[ YEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! ]

Re:I can see it now:

[mollymoo]

Are cops also trained to insert a needless dramatic pause and moody look every five seconds? Thanks to David Caruso's constant posing, for a long time I thought CSI:Miami was a parody of Zoolander.

Re:I can see it now:

[10bellies]

Who buys that ultra-nationalist, self-righteous, moralist crap?

Americans?

Re:I can see it now:

[Tanktalus]

Oh, he's good. He's really good...

Of course, he's no Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris can stand at a 45 degree angle to everyone at the same time.

Those Finns are dedicated

[religious freak]

My girlfriend's car was stolen a number of years ago, and when it was recovered, the police weren't even interested in taking fingerprints, despite the fact that there was damage inside the car and property was stolen out of it.

Good for you, Finland.

Re:Those Finns are dedicated

[Anonymous Coward]

My girlfriend

[citation needed]

Re:Those Finns are dedicated

[CorporateSuit]

My girlfriend's car was stolen a number of years ago, and when it was recovered, the police weren't even interested in taking fingerprints, despite the fact that there was damage inside the car and property was stolen out of it.

Good for you, Finland.

Not like Finnish police have anything better to do. There are no good donut shops in Finland.

Re:Those Finns are dedicated

[religious freak]

Seriously. She's my wife now. I was very young when I met her... This is our first date

(DISCLAIMER: I don't actually know this site, but pulling up the jpg seemed safe enough for me)

Re:Those Finns are dedicated

[Finallyjoined!!!]

Agree, my car was stolen, whilst parked next to an occupied Police car, I was only away from it for about 10 minutes. Did I get any assistance? Nope. They "Didn't see anything". Good old Hampshire Constabulary.

I got it back about 3 weeks later, well "got it back" isn't quite accurate, it was a burnt out wreck. Guess who had to pay for it to be removed.

Re:Those Finns are dedicated

[daem0n1x]

Cool, let's just drop police altogether and hire a bunch of thugs to protect us. Then we can happily go back to the Middle Ages.

Re:Those Finns are dedicated

[Miseph]

Although it gives me an interesting idea... see, I live just south of a large Libertarian enclave (let's just call it "New Hampshire") with vastly inferior numbers and resources than my own place of residence (we'll pretend it's Massachusetts), as well as holding a close political and ideological alliance with our common neighbor (that would be Vermont). My proposal is that we test their dedication to the abolition of federal government by raising a large militia, possibly including high priced Carolinian mercenaries, and looting the shit out of them. It will be the ultimate test: their lax gun regulations versus our actual ability to purchase weapons and possession of at least two active military bases... I expect the conflict to be almost as epic and drawn out as the invasion of Iraq.

Re:Those Finns are dedicated

[Grimbleton]

Not quite on the same thread, my car died on me on the way to work Saturday, right in front of a State Trooper.

Instead of finding out if I was okay when I didn't immediately move from the stop light when it turned green, he laid on his horn and pulled around me angrily and nearly spun his tires going around me glaring at me.

Then when I pushed it off the road into a parking spot (Watched by another trooper) and went home for our other car to jump start it (Alternator died on me, didn't take long to diagnose on the side of the road.) and drove it home, I came back to a parking ticket on the car I used to jump it when I came back for it ten minutes later (Walking, in 3* weather both to get the other car, and to get back to the first car, mind you.)

To Protect and Serve... who, exactly?

Too many factors

[ZephyrXero]

I could see the mosquito based evidence as enough to consider him a suspect, maybe even to get a search warrant perhaps (although that's already a stretch), but by no means should this even remotely count towards conviction as that mosquito could have come from almost anywhere. Still if finding the DNA in the mosquito leads them to find actual evidence, I suppose it's okay.

Re:Too many factors

[Nefarious Wheel]

...that mosquito could have come from almost anywhere...

Considering the medium, it could have come from a tax official.

Re:Too many factors

[_Sprocket_]

Did you just insult mosquitoes?

Re:Too many factors

[Restil]

It was enough to question the guy, who admitted having been in the car, so the mosquito has proven to be a positive lead. Of course, the mosquito does not explain WHY the guy was in the car, but he could have left behind his wallet with ID and still used the same story.

-Restil

Re:Too many factors

[jadavis]

by no means should this even remotely count towards conviction as that mosquito could have come from almost anywhere

Huh? It's called "circumstantial evidence".

1. Car was stolen.
2. They identified someone who was not the owner, and associated him with the car.

There could be a million completely reasonable stories about how it arrived there, so it's not "proof beyond a reasonable doubt". However, it is real evidence, and the jury can weigh it along with everything else.

Similarly, if you find a murder weapon in someone's car, they might not have done it. Maybe they are being framed. Maybe it was stolen, used, and put back. However, that's for the jury to sort out.

Libelous story title?

[HTH NE1]

Shouldn't the story title contain the word "alleged"? As of this posting it does not.

Re:Libelous story title?

[retech]

No, it was an actual mosquito.

Don't you pay attention to Grisom?

[Anachragnome]

Its not just the fact that the persons DNA was extracted from the mosquito, but that it had not yet expelled it as waste. It wasn't digested if it still contained DNA usable for testing.

This means that they had a timeframe from which to work. Where was dude while buggy critter was digesting his blood? No alibi? Hah!

anker?

[commodoresloat]

how do you tie someone to 8-1/2 gallons of liquid??

Re:Just one observation

[commodoresloat]

True, there were plenty of bloodsuckers on the OJ Simpson legal staff, but I'm not sure how testing their DNA would have helped much.

Blabbing Mosquito Bastards!

[curmudgeon99]

I knew I couldn't trust those Skeeters! They swore they just wanted a taste of the red stuff. A now look, turning states evidence! Little blood-thieving bastards!

Jurrasic Park

[deft]

Seems like a simple case...

extract blood
grow clone
compare characteristics
???
justice!

can i add one more bullet?
make raptors!

Re:Just one observation

[Fluffeh]

Everyone is missing the VITAL question here!

Did the mosquito live?!

Re:Advocating lying?

[corsec67]

No, the suspect shouldn't have talked to the police at all. Never talk to police, consent to any kind of search, or offer anything that you aren't legally required to.

It can't help you.

Don't just take my word, how about a law professor and a cop?

Re:Why was his DNA in the system?

[da_matta]

Currently the system consist of "known associates" of the police. In practice you can get included if you are accused of a crime with potential punishment over six months in jail. And in Finland you can't get that from minor stuff like stealing a tv or downloading mp3's.