All of us in the Southeast are experienced in dealing with the "Yellow Plague," referred by some as pollen. Mostly it’s blamed on our pine trees, but there are far more contributors than pine trees.

I’m told by naturalists that there can be literally thousands of types of pollen, and it’s not all yellow. Grass pollen, for example, is white.

What’s pollen got to do with "Call The Cops?" Glad you asked because this week’s column has to do with the detection of a criminal by the use of pollen evidence.

Burton’s Nissan Altima is stolen and moments later the car is used in the commission of an armed robbery. Detectives examine the recovered car looking for evidence that will lead to an arrest.

The roof of the car is covered with yellow pollen. Detective Bulldog sees what looks like a full hand print on the roof of the car just above the driver’s door.

Using a macro lens, Bulldog photographs the hand print, then transfers the digital image into PhotoShop where he increases the contrast using the "levels" tool. Now the print is good enough to put on AFIS, the FBI’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

A hit comes back identifying a known criminal we’ll refer to as Reggie, who happens to live in the same town where this crime was committed.

Reggie, of course, denies any knowledge of the crime, and during questioning even agrees to let Bulldog scrape under Reggie’s fingernails.

A botanist friend of Bulldog’s compares samples of the pollen collected from the roof of the stolen car with samples of Reggie’s fingernail scrapings. The two are an exact match!

Bulldog’s botanist friend explains that since there are thousands of types of pollen in the air this time of year, there’s little likelihood of a match unless the two samples are obtained from exactly the same location. "It’s very much like plant DNA," explains the botanist.

So convinced of the credibility of Bulldog’s "expert witness" is Reggie that he signs a full confession. You may wonder, "Is the botanist guy legit?" Guess I should tell you: he’s one of Bulldog’s beer buddies.