Fingerprint foils Orange Walk burglar
Orange Walk police are giving credit to fingerprinting technology for securing a burglary conviction. Sometime between December thirtieth and January first, someone broke into the Trial Farm home of Manuel Polanco and stole almost three thousand dollars worth of jewellery. During their investigation into the incident, the recently revamped Scenes of Crime Unit lifted a fingerprint off the jewellery box in Manuel’s house and later matched it to another Trial Farm resident, Julian Polanco. Today Julian was found guilty of burglary in Orange Walk Magistrate’s Court and fined three thousand dollars or in default three years in jail. The jewellery has yet to be recovered. According to press officer G. Michael Reid, while it is not the first time that fingerprinting has aided authorities in court, it is the first conviction under the new automated finger-printing system which came on stream last year.