LONDON, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- A police force in Wales became the first in Britain to use DNA test to prove a man had stolen a cow worth 3,000 pounds (about 3,900 U.S. dollars), British media reports said.
Dyfed-Powys police used DNA evidence from the heifer, which escaped from a field and was retagged by a neighboring farmer in August 2017, to prove it had been stolen. A familial connection was proved as the blood samples were compared against cows on the original owner's farm. The heifer was later returned to its owner.
David Owens, 51, pleaded guilty to theft at Swansea Crown Court earlier this week.
The force said the investigation started in December 2017, when a farmer reported the theft of one of his 300 cows which had escaped from his field four months earlier.
Owens had denied the missing animal was on his land, but the complainant recognised it among the herd.
