Madeleine McCann suspect may have entered through front door with ‘elaborate lock-picking kit ‘

Madeleine McCann’s kidnapper may have used an elaborate lock-picking kit to walk right through her family’s front door instead of snatching her through the bedroom window as has long been believed.

A key witness in the investigation claimed Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in McCann’s 2007 disappearance, could easily break into common European lock mechanisms.

“He came through the door,” said a witness known only as Helge B., a petty criminal and former friend of Brueckner whose testimony has taken center stage in the investigation.

Helge B. helped put Brueckner in jail for raping an elderly woman in 2005. He told the Sun on Sunday how Brueckner would brag to him about the tools he used to break into and rob vacation homes.

“I knew from Christian that he uses tools to break into holiday resorts, hotels and holiday homes to steal from tourists,” he told The Sun.

After Brueckner was sent to prison, Helge B. said he broke into his apartment and found the elaborate lock-picking kit.

“There were passports on the table. There was all sorts of stuff lying around– cameras, suitcases, everything that tourists have with them. I also found a lock pick set.”

“You can use it to pick any lock, including security locks,” he said. “He can open any door.”

Helge B. said he kept the lock-picking set, which was made by the brand “Dino” and consisted of 14 different picks which “ensures easier access into the most restrictive European keyways fast,” according to The Sun.

Authorities are reportedly hopeful the kit might become a pivotal piece of evidence in the case.

“The German detectives were electrified by the discovery of the tool kit with the lock picks in it. This evidence is now very important to them,” a police source said, according to The Sun.

Madeleine was three-years-old when she disappeared from her family’s vacation apartment in Praia de Luz, Portugal, as her parents ate dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Her mother returned to the apartment mid-meal to check on her sleeping kids only to find Madeleine missing and her bedroom window open, which led many to presume a kidnapper had taken her through the window.

Police sources reportedly told The Sun that Helge B.’s account about the lock-picking tools supported long-held suspicions among investigators that the open window was a “red herring.”

“It confirmed a suspicion that they’d had for a long time– that Christian B entered the apartment through the door,” sources said, according to The Sun.

But the open window could also support another theory held by some investigators.

Police reportedly think Brueckner could have opened it to ventilate the room as he used car paint solvents to knock Madeleine unconscious– chemicals he had ready access to from work as a mechanic.

Helge B.’s testimony helped land Brueckner a seven-year prison sentence for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman. Brueckner has also been accused of numerous home invasions and rapes, including assaults on young girls.

The pair were friends until Helge B. said he discovered videos in Brueckner’s apartment of him sexually assaulting women.

They fell out of contact for years after that, but they ran into each other in Spain in 2008 as Madeleine’s vanishing was still making headlines.

Helge B. recently recalled in an interview with the German tabloid Bild that while in Spain Brueckner asked if he still visited Portugal, to which he replied that McCann’s disappearance had led to an increase in police checks for travelers.

“I don’t understand anyway how the little girl could disappear without a trace,” Helge B. recalled saying.

Brueckner allegedly responded, “She didn’t even scream,” and then disappeared without a word the next day.

Helge B. said he reported the comments to police several times soon after, but nothing came from his claims.

Later in 2018 after he was called on to testify about the assaults he’d seen recorded in Brueckner’s apartment, his recollections of the hair-raising comments helped pinpoint Brueckner as a prime suspect.

He suspects Brueckner broke into the McCann’s apartment merely to commit a robbery, but ended up swiping the girl when he found her unattended.

In May investigators in Portugal began searching a reservoir they suspect might contain evidence in the case.

Brueckner meanwhile has vehemently denied being responsible for McCann’s vanishing in a series of letters written from his jail cell and released by the Daily Mail.

“You can never imagine how it is when the whole world believes you are a child murderer, and you are not,” he wrote.