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Mistaken identity: Florida man with same name as suspect jailed for 5 days

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. — A cook in South Florida found himself in hot water, but it wasn’t his fault -- he had the same name as a fugitive wanted in another county. That did not prevent the confused cook from spending five days in jail.

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Leonardo Silva Oliveira, 26, of Coconut Creek, was arrested outside a Deerfield Beach restaurant on Jan. 20, the Sun-Sentinel reported. Meanwhile, Leonardo Silva Oliveira, 26, was wanted for violating probation on charges of grand theft and burglary of an unoccupied dwelling in Boca Raton, located just north of the Broward County line in Palm Beach County, the newspaper reported.

Confused? So were authorities, and the cook was especially puzzled.

Both men had a passing facial resemblance, and the cook was born 10 days before the fugitive, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Also, the fugitive had tattoos on each arm, sporting buildings on his left arm and a clock on his right arm.

“I have no tattoos,” Oliveira the cook told the newspaper. “They checked my arms. They didn’t see any. But they still took me in.”

The Coconut Creek Police Department’s arrest report stated that the cook was identified as the fugitive in the state’s driver and vehicle information database.

Police spokesperson Sgt. Scotty Leamon told the Sun-Sentinel that Palm Beach County law enforcement asked for help after identifying the cook as the fugitive. Police in Broward County were given the cook’s driver’s license number, along with his Social Security number.

The cook had no criminal record.

“I was on 24-hour lockdown,” Oliveira the cook told the newspaper. “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 was born in Brazil and said his name was a common one in his country. He tried to tell authorities that they had the wrong Oliveira, but his pleas fell upon deaf ears.

“How could I be wanted on a probation violation when I’ve never been arrested for anything?” the cook told the Sun-Sentinel. “It was a nightmare.”

On Monday, the cook hired attorney Jose Castañeda, who filed a motion to have his client released, The Associated Press reported. He told the court that the fugitive Oliveira weighed 213 pounds when he was arrested in 2017 on a burglary charge, while his client weighs less than 150 pounds, the news outlet reported.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office obtained fingerprints for the fugitive and compared them to those of the man in custody, spokesperson Carey Codd told the newspaper.

“When it was determined that the fingerprints did not match, Oliveira was immediately released from jail,” Codd said.

The fugitive remains at large. The cook is pondering whether to take legal action.

“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” Oliveira the cook told the the Sun-Sentinel. “I don’t want it to happen to me again. Do I have to change my name so that it doesn’t?”