M car was broke into three weeks ago, plus I cleaned it about a week ago not realizing, still get prints?

Question

My car was broke into the last three weeks and I did not know it. I don't check everything. I have a bunch of things missing, after I cleaned it. Can I still call the cops for fingerprints? I think I know who did it.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, shows such as CSI like to allow us to think that they would actually finger print the car. The hard fact of reality is that it is not worth the money or time to check for prints because they will most likely never find them.

However, back to your original question. They could indeed find fingerprints on surfaces that you may have not wiped down. Once you cleaned your car, you most likely destroyed most, if not all, fingerprints left by the criminal.

Answer 2

Unlikely and it is doubtful that they would dust anyway. Most of those go unsolved sadly but if you have not you should make a police report for insurance purposes.

Answer 3

As I stated above yes and good luck.

Answer 4

You should call the Police immidiately, there may still be fingerprints / DNA remaining on the vehicle. They should send the forensic examiners over as soon as possible.

The Police are always the judge of this situation.

Answer 5

It's hard to get prints off of the interior of a car anyways. The material used for the dashboard is not very conducive for lifting prints. Plus, you said yourself that you cleaned the car. Fingerprints are left by oily residues on your fingertips. It's likely that the moisture would have already evaporated, thus eliminating any hope for the dust to settle on something. No department I know of will look for DNA and have it tested due to the cost and backlog of evidence already waiting analysis. And last but not least, most people already know about fingerprints and use gloves. I had a juvenile once wrap duct tape around his fingertips to avoid prints.

Answer 6

They seldom dust cars for prints for a break and enter.  The only time they do is if there is a very big rash of incidents and they want to stop them.  Of course they will dust for major crimes, murder, kidnap, etc.