Dream Vacation Turns Into Prison Nightmare for Tourist in Italy
The door of a prison cell. (Getty Images/allanswart)
What was supposed to be a relaxing Italian getaway turned into a nightmare for a Romanian tourist who was arrested during his first breakfast abroad—mistaken for a wanted criminal.
The tourist, identified as Ovidiu A., was staying at a hotel in Caorle, a seaside town near Venice, when police arrived on August 24 and took him into custody. The reason? His name matched that of a Romanian national previously convicted in Italy for aggravated theft, according to CBS News.
Ovidiu soon found himself entangled in a bureaucratic mess that kept him in jail for nearly a month. His family, left in the dark, waited anxiously for answers.
“It was a nightmare,” said Ovidiu, who was finally released after his lawyer, Stefano De Rosa, spent weeks piecing together evidence to prove the mistaken identity. The process was hindered by poor communication among several agencies, including the police, courts, and prison officials.
“I had to request documentation from each office individually,” De Rosa explained to reporters.
After being reunited with his family, Ovidiu told Italy’s Corriere del Veneto that they planned to salvage what they could of the ill-fated holiday, spending a few quiet days at the beach before heading home to Romania.
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