BERLIN (AP) – German police say they have solved a theft for nine years after the DNA found on a half-eaten piece of sausage corresponded to that of a man detained in France for an unrelated crime.
Police in the western town of Schwelm said on Thursday that the sausage belonged to the victim and that the suspect – a 30-year-old Albanian citizen – appeared to have served himself a bite during the March 2012 assault.
It was not clear what type of sausage – known in Germany as sausage – the thief nibbled on, although the police said it was a difficult variety.
Investigators were recently warned that French police had collected a DNA sample from a man involved in a violent crime.
But Schwelm police said the suspect remains at large and, in the case of the sausage, could escape punishment. The statute of limitations for the theft has expired, which means that he is unlikely to be extradited to Germany.