If you are going to use the bathroom while robbing a house, be sure to leave no trace. A man was arrested in California burglary case after forensic investigators linked him to the scene using genetic material left behind in the toilet, the Ventura County Star reports.
"Most people don't assume or don't know that DNA can be obtained by other things besides hair and saliva," Detective Tim Lohman from the Ventura County Sheriff's Office tells BBC News. "We look for any type of evidence that might be left behind. Whether it's a smoked cigarette or a can that may be left behind, we will analyze it."
The Ventura County Star says police investigating a robbery in Thousand Oaks, California, found an unflushed fecal sample that potentially contained the robber's DNA. The police sent the sample to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office's Forensic Services Bureau for processing. Their findings matched an entry within the CODIS database, leading police to arrest Andrew David Jensen on suspicion of first-degree residential burglary.
While Lohman tells the AP that this is the first time he's aware of that fecal DNA snagged a robbery suspect, thogh the Ventura County Star notes that fecal DNA helped link a suspect to a 1997 murder case.