Burglar broke into apartment to smoke weed and cook hot dogs, SC police say

When the police left the crime scene, a ketchup bottle was submitted into evidence.

The ketchup bottle was covered with the fingerprints of the burglar, or burglars, that broke into an apartment to smoke marijuana and eat hot dogs, according to the Spartanburg Police Department.

Other than four hot dogs, four buns, some eggs, orange juice and the ketchup, nothing was missing from the apartment, police reported.

But suspects are wanted for burglarizing a Spartanburg apartment shared by a brother and sister.

The siblings were returning home early Wednesday morning after working the graveyard shift, to be greeted by an open door and the “strong smell of marijuana,” according to an incident report.

The siblings told police neither smokes marijuana, the report said.

Although several doors in the apartment were open and personal items had been “shuffled around” — including a bottle of wine, a stun gun and items in a bathroom cabinet — nothing was reported missing, police said.

Also unusual: The burglar, or burglars, cleaned up after themselves.

Police reported that the siblings were tipped off to the missing food by dishes, a glass, a cup and a pot in the kitchen sink — which the siblings said they did not put there, police said.

But the suspects did not do a good job of cleaning up their fingerprints.

Investigators gathered fingerprints off the kitchenware and doors, and realized the ketchup bottle was also a source of evidence that could help identify the burglars.

That’s because the ketchup was found in the refrigerator, but the brother and sister only kept it in a pantry, according to police, who were able to get fingerprints off the condensation forming on the bottle.

The incident remains under investigation by the Spartanburg Police Department.