A 13-year-old suspected burglar may be ruing her lack of self-control after police linked her to a burglary thanks to a DNA sample taken from a particularly unpleasant piece of evidence – soiled toilet paper found in the victim's garden.

Police believe the teenage girl, who is also suspected of a series of break-ins in the Paris area, is responsible for a burglary 700km away in Toulouse after investigators matched her DNA with fecal matter taken from used toilet paper found in the garden at the home of a victim.

After allegedly breaking into the house in Saint-Alban, south-western France, in September 2012, the girl was unable to restrain herself, and appears to have answered the call of nature at the bottom of the garden, leaving behind her toilet paper, a police source told Le Parisien.

Little did she suspect it would be placed in evidence, but after comparing the DNA found on the soiled bog-roll in the autumn with DNA found at the scene of a break-in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, police have been able to nab the 13-year-old for doing the dirty deed, so to speak.

The teenage girl was held last week by police in Val-de-Marne, near Paris.