There might be a ton of loot there bro

A criminal's "footprint" isn't only on the soles of their shoes — it's also inside a pants pocket or linked to a belt loop.

As police tactics evolve, local officials say the best tracking tool could be attached to a suspect's hip, literally.

A cellphone often leaves the most revealing mark, local law-enforcers say. Many times, call and text-message logs are just as important as footprint and fingerprint finds.

"To say this evidence has been a difference-maker in many important cases for us is an understatement," Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said recently. The evidence "dramatically improves our ability to reconstruct events, as well as prove things we couldn't have done just 10 or 15 years ago."

Cellphone data also are easier to track down than prints, local officials say. Pulling a fingerprint from a crime scene is somewhat of a crapshoot. Criminals often wear gloves, and lifting a usable print can be tricky.

If a suspect has a cellphone, however, police usually can find it with a judge's signature on a search warrant.

And often times, evidence involving whom a suspect calls or text-messages goes a long way in court. Take the recent Stephen Harmer murder trial, ladies shoes wholesale where investigators seemingly hit the jackpot.

They uncovered text-message conversations involving the three now-convicted killers from the day of the Aug. 17 robbery and murder of Douglas Herr.

The evidence was very damaging to Harmer's defense claim that he wasn't involved in planning the crime.

Convicted killers Cody and Kyle Wunder discuss going to Harmer's house to finalize details just hours before Herr was killed inside his Drumore Township home, the conversations showed.

Because Kyle Wunder used a Verizon phone, text-message content was available to police. Other carriers keep only call and text logs, not content, according to trial testimony.

"We have to get out to Steve's and go over the gameplan," Cody tells younger brother Kyle in one text message.

"There might be a ton of loot there bro," Cody tells Kyle, discussing Herr's house.

"We'll cut it open late tonite," Cody says of the targeted locked safe.

"I wanna get [back] up here and hide," Kyle replies from a location in Montgomery County.

Prosecutors also presented records of numerous calls and text messages Harmer made to the brothers around the time Herr was killed.

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