COCONUT CREEK, Fla. — A South Florida cook says he lived a nightmare recently when police mistook him for a fugitive with the same name, similar looks and almost the same birthday.
Leonardo Silva Oliveira, the 26-year-old fugitive, was wanted on a probation violation out of nearby Palm Beach County.
Leonardo Silva Oliveira, the 26-year-old cook, was working in a Deerfield Beach restaurant and had never been in trouble with the law.
But he spent five days in jail before the Broward County Sheriff's Office, which runs the jail, ran the fingerprints and realized the mistake.
He was released Tuesday. The fugitive is still on the run.
Oliveira, the cook, says authorities should've known he was not the fugitive because he was 10 days younger and didn't have a building or clock tattoo on his body, The Associated Press reports.
“They checked my arms. They didn’t see any. But they still took me in,” the cook told the South Florida SunSentinel.
The Coconut Creek Police Department's arrest report says the cook was identified by Florida's driver and vehicle information database, the newspaper explains.
Police spokesman Sgt. Scotty Leamon told SunSentinel that Palm Beach County law enforcement asked for help after identifying the cook as the fugitive, which the reasoning behind is still unclear.
“A PBSO detective confirmed that Oliveira was the subject they had an active warrant on,” Leamon said to the newspaper. “After confirmation, Oliveira was arrested and transported to the Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail.”
When police arrested him outside of his job, it was the first time he was ever in trouble with the law, the Associated Press reports.
“I was on 24-hour lockdown,” he said to the SunSentinel. “I finally got out of the cell for an hour a day Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It was a little window, no TV. Nothing to do but just stare at the walls and try to stay warm.”
The cook tried to tell people he was the wrong guy, but it reportedly wasn't until he hired lawyer Jose Castañeda that Oliveria was freed.
Castañeda explained to the court that the cook weighed more than 50 pounds less than the man they were after, according to the SunSentinel. The fugitive's father in Palm Beach County was even tracked down and confirmed his son was still on the run.
Before a hearing could be held, the sheriff's office was able to obtain fingerprints of both men to compare, the Associated Press explains.
“When it was determined that the fingerprints did not match, Oliveira was immediately released from jail,” BSO spokesman Carey Codd told the newspaper.
Now that he's free, the cook is reportedly considering his next legal move.
“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” he said to the SunSentinel. “I don’t want it to happen to me again! Do I have to change my name so that it doesn’t?”
10 Tampa Bay's Courtney Holland contributed to this report.
