The end of a woman's pleasure cruise turned into a nightmare in Fort Lauderdale when she was mistakenly arrested for prostitution just moments after she got off the ship Monday night.
What's worse is she was carrying her 9-month old son at the time.
Now the woman, Paola Londono of Orlando, is fighting a crime she didn't commit and understandably upset about the entire ordeal.
"Her baby was taken from her arms," Londono's attorney, Jose Baez told the Sun-Sentinel. "She insisted immediately that it was not her."
The Broward Sheriff's Office admits this was a case of mistaken identity.
Once Londono appeared on the cruise ship's guest list, it sent off red flags to authorities for a woman with the same name who was wanted for prostitution and drug possession in Osceola County.
The woman on the run was from the same area, and had the same name and birth date as Londono - with one noticeable difference.
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The cruise passenger is 32 and the alleged prostitute is 24.
"It's extremely disappointing that in this day and age, this kind of issue can't be resolved in a matter of seconds," Baez said.
The Osceola Sheriff's Office confirmed there was an error and that Londono - the one on a cruise - should not have been arrested.
"We found the error today when we were following up on the information," Osceola County sheriff's spokeswoman Twis Lizasuain told the Sun-Sentinel. "Our database had two Paola Londonos in the system. How the names crossed is going to be something that we will be looking into. As soon as we found out today that that's where the error occurred, we immediately corrected it in the system. We are following up right now and are looking into how it happened."
Londono was released from Broward County Jail late Monday, but the accidental arrest is not over.
Londono will have to appear in court in Kissimmee to clean up the mess, a bitter end to what was supposed to be a family vacation.
Mean while, the other Londono is still on the lam.
