A mosquito reveals a car thief

[Tiriol]

Finnish police has used blood found inside a mosquito to catch an alleged car thief.

The link is n Finnish, but I'll do my best to translate it for the reader's benefit.

News about Finland's police's splendid work spread across the world
23.12.2008 14:59

News about a car theft solved by Finnish policemen using a moswuito has been publicized in at least six continents. News agency AFP started yesterday to spread the news which has gathered much surprise in local news channels in Britain, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, South Africa etc.

The crime itself happened in muncipality of Lapua in Etelä-Pohjanmaa [Southern Pohjanmaa] last June. The police was informed of a stolen car and found it about 25 kilometers from the railway station of Seinäjoki.

A mosquito was found inside the car and the police noticed that it had recently drained some blood. The insect was sent for further examination in the hopes that evidence of a possible thief could be found inside it.

The examination was successful. Police was able to locate and contain alleged thief's DNA from the blood which the mosquito had drained.

A matching DNA sample was found in police's files. The suspect denied his guilt during the interrogation and claimed that he was merely hitchiking and gotten that way inside the car in question.

- Using a mosquito is not ordinary for us. We don't emphasize the importance of looking for mosquitos during the training, the director of investation Sakari Palomäki laughed during the AFP's interview.

According to Palomäki the prosecutor will decide next if the evidence gathered in this unusual way is enough to press the charges.

Ilta-Sanomat tabloid was the first one to report about the case.

(MTV3)

[Shroom Man 777]

That's totally cool, like something out of CSI. Who would think of obtaining DNA from a tiny bug? The only times you'd think of that is when you've found a corpse that's being chewed by all sorts of insectoids.

Also, I didn't know you had mosquitoes in Sweden.

[Sky Captain]

This sounds like something straight out of a spymovie. I have heard that hair or blood speck found in place where crime has been committed is used as evidence, but blood from insect is something totally new to me.

[Kanastrous]

Will this be of any use to prosecutors? How will they demonstrate that the mosquito couldn't have bitten the guy somewhere else, than become trapped in the car a few minutes before it was stolen?

Although for being dumb enough to admit having even been *in* the car, the guy deserves to go down.

[Tiriol]

That's totally cool, like something out of CSI. Who would think of obtaining DNA from a tiny bug? The only times you'd think of that is when you've found a corpse that's being chewed by all sorts of insectoids.

Also, I didn't know you had mosquitoes in Sweden.

FINLAND. Totally different country.

And yes, even the northern lands have their shares of mosquitoes, or gnats. They're quite a pest really, although luckily don't carry diseases (or at least I don't recall any incident where they would have done so).

[General Zod]

Will this be of any use to prosecutors? How will they demonstrate that the mosquito couldn't have bitten the guy somewhere else, than become trapped in the car a few minutes before it was stolen?

If that was the case, the mosquito would probably have more blood in its body than just the thief's, since they tend to digest it within 1 or 2 days. If it's just the thief's blood, then it's a good probability that the mosquito was smacked by the last person it happened to feed on. (Seeing they generally prefer feeding on other animals besides humans).

[Shroom Man 777]

Whoops. Yeah, sorry about that.

Man, I can't believe you cold Scandinavian countries still have those bugs. That's inconceivable, to someone from the mosquito-infested and diseased-ridden tropics.

I bet that car thief is thinking the same thing.

[Sky Captain]

Whoops. Yeah, sorry about that.

Man, I can't believe you cold Scandinavian countries still have those bugs. That's inconceivable, to someone from the mosquito-infested and diseased-ridden tropics.

I bet that car thief is thinking the same thing.

Yeah even in northeast Europe we have plenty of mosquito's. During warm summer days if you go in places with lot of trashy water better have some repellents, trousers and long sleeve shirt. Last summer when I assembled my sailing catamaran on a bank of shitty river I nearly got eaten alive by clouds of hungry mosquito's.

[Dooey Jo]

Man, I can't believe you cold Scandinavian countries still have those bugs. That's inconceivable, to someone from the mosquito-infested and diseased-ridden tropics.

I bet that car thief is thinking the same thing.

Dude, I think we pretty much invented mosquitoes. In some places, especially up north, there are so many of the little fuckers that it's simply impossible to go outside in the summer. Even here, on more reasonable latitudes, being out on a summer night can get pretty nasty if it has rained recently (which it has, because it always rains).

[Darth Fanboy]

Shroom you may be surprised to know that Alaska (a.k.a Palinstan) has big ass 'skeeters.

[Edi]

Will this be of any use to prosecutors? How will they demonstrate that the mosquito couldn't have bitten the guy somewhere else, than become trapped in the car a few minutes before it was stolen?

Although for being dumb enough to admit having even been *in* the car, the guy deserves to go down.

Enough to convict, I'd say. They used a mosquito specialist as an expert on reliability. Mosquitoes take 1-3 days to digest a full meal of blood and after feeding they immediately seek shelter and a place where they could lay eggs. Typical distance to fly after feeding is 2-3 meters, almost always less than 5.

As far as mosquitoes in Scandinavia, we have billions and billions of them, all through the summer. Our summer house is on a lakeshore and there are two different swamps around the area. It gets really tiresome. And there are NO mosquitoes at all at that place compared to Lapland, which has dozens of kilometers of swamps and fells and all kinds of other terrain that mosquitoes just love. In eastern Finland, in Kuusamo, there is a long hiking trail known as Karhunkierros. Somebody from Central Europe made the mistake of hiking that in only shorts and other light clothing (it's 80 km). The guy nearly didn't make it and one of the major reasons was the profusion of mosquitoes.

We also have an even nastier variety of bloodsucker known as blakcfly. Mosquitoes have nothing on these bastards. So small you never even notice them, they don't suck blood so much as they lick the skin until it breaks in an open wound and they lick the blood. These are much more painful than mosquito bites and far more likely to become infected. They also itch like hell.

As much as there are mosquitoes up north, there are twice as many blackflies.

[Kanastrous]

Will this be of any use to prosecutors? How will they demonstrate that the mosquito couldn't have bitten the guy somewhere else, than become trapped in the car a few minutes before it was stolen?

Although for being dumb enough to admit having even been *in* the car, the guy deserves to go down.

Enough to convict, I'd say. They used a mosquito specialist as an expert on reliability. Mosquitoes take 1-3 days to digest a full meal of blood and after feeding they immediately seek shelter and a place where they could lay eggs. Typical distance to fly after feeding is 2-3 meters, almost always less than 5.

So the mosquito locates him within fifteen feet or so of the car in question, within 72 hours of its theft.

In an American court of law, a good lawyer might well get an acquittal, against that.

[General Zod]

So the mosquito locates him within fifteen feet or so of the car in question, within 72 hours of its theft.

In an American court of law, a good lawyer might well get an acquittal, against that.

Maybe if he had no prior history, but the fact that he had records on file with the police department cast some rather serious doubts on that.

[Edi]

Will this be of any use to prosecutors? How will they demonstrate that the mosquito couldn't have bitten the guy somewhere else, than become trapped in the car a few minutes before it was stolen?

Although for being dumb enough to admit having even been *in* the car, the guy deserves to go down.

Enough to convict, I'd say. They used a mosquito specialist as an expert on reliability. Mosquitoes take 1-3 days to digest a full meal of blood and after feeding they immediately seek shelter and a place where they could lay eggs. Typical distance to fly after feeding is 2-3 meters, almost always less than 5.

So the mosquito locates him within fifteen feet or so of the car in question, within 72 hours of its theft.

In an American court of law, a good lawyer might well get an acquittal, against that.

We actually have a working court system. Besides that, the guy's explanations were all over the place and did not match the other facts of the case, while the theft scenario fit everything.

[Kanastrous]

We actually have a working court system.

Yeah. That must be nice.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Man, I can't believe you cold Scandinavian countries still have those bugs. That's inconceivable, to someone from the mosquito-infested and diseased-ridden tropics.

I bet that car thief is thinking the same thing.

Dude, I think we pretty much invented mosquitoes. In some places, especially up north, there are so many of the little fuckers that it's simply impossible to go outside in the summer. Even here, on more reasonable latitudes, being out on a summer night can get pretty nasty if it has rained recently (which it has, because it always rains).

You haven't been to South East Asia haven't you? Here, we get Dengue cases and apparently a new plague spread by these fuckers every month by the hundreds to thousands across the region.

[JME2]

Wow; this is a new one on me.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Shroom you may be surprised to know that Alaska (a.k.a Palinstan) has big ass 'skeeters.

those are called vampires.

[mr friendly guy]

Who would think of obtaining DNA from a tiny bug?

Michael Crichton. It was only part of the premise for Jurassic Park.

[Durandal]

In the US, I'm sure that a defense attorney would argue that the mosquito was acting as an agent of the state, and the bite constituted an illegal search of his client.

[Bedlam]

Identifying the source of mosquito blood meals was part of my Phd. We were working on blood from cattle rather than humans and in Africa rather than Scandinavia but we could detect blood after 2 days of digestion in most cases and we weren't using very up to date equipment 6-7 years ago so I'm not surprised they can do this in a well equiped lab now. We generally found that we couldn't detect more than one meal in each mosquito either due to limitations of our technique or because they tended not to feed very frequently, we found some other species such as Tetse flies did multiple feed but they take much more blood. The blood in a fully fed mosquito was enough for 10s of tests in most cases.