Florida Man Held For 5 Days In Jail Over Mistaken Identity, Lawyer Says

A Florida man was held for five days in jail after authorities mistook him for a fugitive with the same name, age and similar appearance, his lawyer said.

Fugitive Leonardo Silva Oliveira, 26, of Coconut Creek, Florida, who was arrested on charges of burglary and grand theft in 2017, is wanted for a probation violation out of Palm Beach County, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported, citing the Coconut Creek Police Department.

However, a different 26-year-old Leonardo Silva Oliveira, a cook with no criminal record, was arrested by Coconut Creek police outside the Deerfield Beach restaurant where he worked on Jan. 20.

The cook spent five days in Broward County Jail until the Broward County Sheriff's Office, which runs the jail, ran his fingerprints and realized they were dealing with a case of mistaken identity.

Scotty Leamon, a representative for the Coconut Creek PD, told People via an email that Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office contacted Coconut Creek authorities on Jan. 19 and explained that they had a warrant for a Leonardo Silva Oliveira, who listed an address in Coconut Creek.

"Officers confirmed that address and found the individual they arrested at his place of employment the following day, January 20," Leamon said. "His name, driver's license, and Social Security number matched everything PBSO sent to us."

"One of our officers took a picture of him and sent it to a PBSO deputy, who verified that that was the man they were looking for," Leamon added.

Oliveira, the one who was mistaken for a fugitive, told the Sun-Sentinel that police should have known that they had the wrong person. The fugitive is 10 days older and also has tattoos, which the man who was mistakenly arrested does not.

"They checked my arms," Oliveira told the outlet. "They didn't see any. But they still took me in."

His lawyer, Jose Castañeda, said in an interview that "the tattoo was a clear giveaway; the descriptions didn’t match, the date of births didn’t match," The New York Times reported. He also said his client had never been arrested before and that he was hired several days after the cook was taken to jail.

The cook was released Tuesday after officials discovered his fingerprints did not match their records.

Castañeda said the experience had been "a nightmare" for his client and his family.

"You can just imagine the joy of when he got out," he said. "He was so excited."

The fugitive Oliveira remains at large.