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Ind. Cops Use Dentures to Track Burglar

Posted on: Thursday, 9 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

Police didn't have to use DNA or fingerprints to track down a man accused of breaking into a vacant house - they traced his dentures.

Investigators said Paul D. Lee's false teeth apparently fell out when he stumbled after breaking into a house that was being remodeled.

Lee, 39, of Muncie, was being held in the Delaware County Jail on $25,000 bond Thursday on preliminary charges including burglary.

A relative of the home's owner found the dentures in the garage the morning after the Sept. 23 break-in and called police. Neither the owner nor police had noticed the teeth during an earlier search.

"I never paid no attention. I was looking for things that were missing; I wasn't looking for teeth," said Louie Coill, who owns the house about nine miles south of Muncie.

"I have fell over fences and done everything else in my life and I have never lost my dentures. How he lost his is beyond me," Coill said.

Police tracked the teeth to Lee after learning that an Indiana law requires dentures to bear the owner's name underneath the artificial gum.

Investigators returned Lee's teeth to him so he could make a videotaped confession. He was later allowed to keep his dentures after signing for them, according to a police report.

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