German police say they solved a 9-year-old burglary case by matching a half-eaten piece of sausage to international DNA records

• Police in Germany say they've solved a 9-year-old robbery case through DNA found on a sausage.
• They said the DNA recently matched that of a man detained in France earlier this year.
• The statute of limitations expired on the case, but the man has been detained in a separate crime.

Police in a town in western Germany say they solved a 9-year-old burglary case by matching DNA from a half-eaten piece of sausage at the scene of the crime to a man in France.

Germany's Nordrhein-Westfalen state police said in a statement that DNA from a 30-year-old Albanian man detained in France on a separate crime was matched to the sausage in an international DNA database.

The police department said that in 2012, DNA from the half-eaten sausage did not match anyone in the international database. But when French authorities took a DNA sample from the Albanian man earlier this year after detaining him in an investigation into a violent crime, they said his DNA and DNA on the sausage matched in international records.

Upon realizing the match, French authorizes contacted officials in Germany.

The 2012 robbery happened in the German town of Schwelm, The Guardian reported.

Police in Schwelm said the sausage was found at the scene of a break-in in Gevelsberg, and investigators believe the suspect took a bite from it.

The statute of limitations on the burglary has expired, The Guardian reported, so Germany likely won't extradite the suspect.

Schwelm police told the Guardian that the suspect will likely remain free from consequence in the robbery case.

The status of the violent crime case in France, however, remains unclear. According to the Associated Press, the man remains detained.