Something about a distinctive pattern on his sneakers.
When Feinstein was mayor of San Francisco she blabbed to the media confidential info on the 'night stalker', alerting him just as the police were closing in.Something about a distinctive pattern on his sneakers.
That’s exactly right. The police knew the exact, rather rare, brand and size of sneakers that was worn by the criminal as they closed in on their suspects. It was the only hard piece of evidence that they had.
DiFi, being a complete idiot, walked out of a briefing and announced this progress to the media. The suspect naturally destroyed his sneakers before the police could stop him, greatly weakening the case.