Transvestite booked as woman

ORLANDO, Fla., July 21 (UPI) -- A Florida transvestite who stole a female friend's identity fooled police and sheriff's deputies until his fingerprints linked him to his real name.

Brittany Drucella Ossenfort, a new mother in Holly Hill, knew Richard Phillips was a cross-dresser. She learned what he had done when he called her asking for bail money and told her he had been booked under the name Ossenfort, The Orlando Sentinel reported.

When Phillips was arrested July 13 after allegedly offering an undercover police officer sex for $30, he was housed in a woman's dormitory at the Orange County Jail. Twelve hours later, deputies got fingerprint results on him and moved him to protective custody in a male wing.

In the meantime, Ossenfort has discovered that getting her name out of the system could be tough. She told the newspaper she has to get an official letter acknowledging that she is not the person who was arrested.

Contacted by the Sentinel, Phillips denied that is his name and insisted he is Brittany Ossenfort.