ROCHESTER, NY — A wax hand made at the Lilac Festival has led to arrests in multiple cold cases after investigators discovered the suspect enthusiastically preserved their own fingerprints in bright wax sometime around 2011. Authorities say the breakthrough came after a detective recognized the hand while attending a graduation party in Gates. The handmade souvenir has reportedly matched evidence connected to multiple unsolved murders throughout Monroe County.

The discovery also revealed that the Rochester Police Department has quietly maintained a massive fingerprint database compiled entirely from wax hands made at the Lilac Festival. According to sources close to The Innerloop Blog, the department began archiving the molds years ago after realizing thousands of Rochester residents were voluntarily paying $15 to create highly detailed forensic evidence of their own hands.

Officials described the system as “basically AncestryDNA for people who smell like kettle corn and weed.” Detectives say the database has already helped solve assaults, burglaries, and several Wegmans asset protection investigations.