BERLIN (AP) – German police say they have solved a theft nine years after DNA found in a piece of half-eaten sausage matched that of a man arrested in France for an unrelated crime.
Police in the western city 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 helped himself to a bite during the March 2012 outbreak.
It was unclear what type of sausage, known in Germany as wurst, the thief had stolen, although police said it was a tough variety.
Investigators were recently alerted that French police had taken a matching DNA sample from a man involved in a violent crime.
But Schwelm police said the suspect remains free and, in the most serious case, can escape punishment. The statute of limitations for the theft has expired, which means he will probably not be extradited to Germany.