Alleged Thief Claims Thumb He Left Behind

As burglars go, this guy was all thumbs.

It started out as a break-in at an East Kendall, Fla., apartment.

“He was going to steal a shotgun,” said Metro-Dade detective Dorothy Diaz. “The gun was zippered up in a carrying case. As he put the gun down, it fired.

“He shot off his thumb.”

Rafael Santiago, 34, of Miami Beach, is recovering in the jail ward at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He is charged with armed burglary and grand theft.

Santiago and an accomplice broke into the fourth-floor apartment of Jim Thompson Monday afternoon. Then the accident happened. The burglars split.

Officer Phillip Hegele responded to a call from a neighbor.

“A portion of a thumb was located next to a shotgun inside the residence,” the police report said.

Police started calling hospitals, Diaz said.

Emergency workers at Jackson Memorial Hospital said they were treating a man who had just walked in “with a hand injury (missing thumb).”

Diaz drove to Jackson and showed Santiago the missing digit.

“He started looking at it, and he claimed it. He asked if it could be placed back on,” Diaz said.

Doctors tried. Too fragmented.

“We just took a picture of it,” Diaz said. “We didn’t impound it. The evidence is overwhelming.”