In a detailed plan, the unnamed 20-year-old and an accomplice were said to have followed the manager of a boutique jewellery store in Paris to her home last April where they bound and gagged her to a chair.
French newspaper, La Parisien, reported that the two men then poured a liquid over the 56-year-old woman claiming it was petrol and threatened to set it alight if she did not provide codes to the jewellery store’s safes and alarm system.
Once she provided the information, one of the men allegedly returned to the store and stole an unspecified amount of money and jewellery, while the other stayed with the woman.
When the woman was released four hours later, the thief kissed her on the cheek, reportedly in a sign of compassion, and fled the house. She immediately notified the police and gave a full description of what had happened – including the farewell kiss.
According to reports, the victim was told not to touch her face and a forensic team arrived with a small hope they might be able to isolate some DNA from the kiss.
Amazingly, the man’s DNA was singled out and registered on the French genetic print database.
A few months later, the DNA record was matched to a man who had been arrested on suspicion of other thefts. Upon questioning, he finally admitted his role in the heist and told police that he had kissed the woman to “ease her trauma”.