DNA theft

[Eddie Dane]

OK, this was in the Dutch papers a while ago.
I meant to post it here then.

Apparently the Dutch police has trouble with criminals stealing DNA from each other.

The idea is that when you go and commit a crime, it might be a good idea to leave some hairs from a "friend" on the crime scene.
And if that friend has a criminal record? All the more plausible that it was him!

Since DNA evidence get's debated here quite often, this strikes me as an interesting development.

Also because in the public mind DNA evidence means that one is scientifically proven to be the perpetrator.

 

[Beerina]

Wow, to the best of my knowledge, this hasn't even been used in a crime drama show, yet!

Mistakes, police plants, identical twins, even the occasional chimera, but never crooks planting each other's!

 

[INRM]

It could be scarily effective in framing a person for a crime they did not commit

 

[GreyArea]

Apparently the Dutch police has trouble with criminals stealing DNA from each other.

It's funny how when someone has their DNA stolen they no longer have any. What do they replace it with? Maybe Tinkertoys.

It's like when I had my identity stolen. I don't have one now, and it makes me sad. But of course, there isn't any "me" to be sad anymore so it doesn't matter.


More seriously, wouldn't this just be a case of tampering with evidence, or framing someone? The crime itself isn't new, just the method.

 

[Soapy Sam]

I've been wondering for years when this would start.

 

[AlBell]

Wow, to the best of my knowledge, this hasn't even been used in a crime drama show, yet!

Mistakes, police plants, identical twins, even the occasional chimera, but never crooks planting each other's!

Law & Order came close years ago in the episode where the guy nominated for head of Homeland Security killed a mistress and tried to implicate another mistress in the death.

 

[Alt+F4]

There have been several cases where inmates have smuggled sperm out of prison to impregnate their wives or girlfriends. Imagine if that sperm turn up at a crime scene? It would cast doubt on the guilt of the inmate who it came from.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Every time I read a library book I think how, if I were going to commit a crime, how easy it would be to contaminate the crime scene by collecting the hair of strangers. There always seems to be a long strand in every library book. Just collect a bunch of samples, then strew them around the crime scene. Then your lawyer can laugh the prosecution right out of court on crossexamination of the forensic witnesses when they have to admit that while your DNA was found there, so was the DNA of twelve hundred other people.

 

[casebro]

"NCIS" did any episode where a lab tech's daughter used a ten year old sample to frame a felon in a new murder. She got caught because the felon had died six weeks before the second murder.

 

[luchog]

Wow, to the best of my knowledge, this hasn't even been used in a crime drama show, yet!

Mistakes, police plants, identical twins, even the occasional chimera, but never crooks planting each other's!

Actually, I've been seeing that in cop shows for well over a decade now. Seen at least one episode of CSI and NCIS with that exact plot device; and 1 or 2 of Law & Order: SVU.

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

New criminal tradition: dumpster diving behind hair salons.

A

 

[GrandMasterFox]

Wow, to the best of my knowledge, this hasn't even been used in a crime drama show, yet!

Just to show you how absurd that is, there was an actual episode of the *ANIMATED* show of Police Academy from the late 80s that did that.

 

[Eddie Dane]

New criminal tradition: dumpster diving behind hair salons.

A

It was more a case of getting some hair from inside a cap.

But if you really want to contaminate a crime-scene I'd say; Rob a sperm bank, grab some handfuls of hair from the bin at the hair salon, some urine from the doctor's office (preferably from pregnant women) and top it off with some samples of extinct animals.

That should keep them busy for a while.