This is SO much better than the cops trying to track down a suspect using a drawing from a police sketch artist.

Earlier this month, a guy in Riverside, California was at a holiday parade and asked a caricature artist there to draw a picture of him.

Once the artist was done with the drawing, the guy grabbed the artist's money bag with about $500 inside . . . and ran off.

But he left the CARICATURE behind.  So now the cops have an exaggerated cartoon drawing of the guy to use to try to track him down.

The cops say the guy is a black adult male in his early 20s, about 5-foot-1, and from the drawing we can see he had a mustache, earring, and red baseball cap.