The Milwaukee County sheriff 's deputies at Mitchell Airport didn 't notice that Patricia K. Bradley 's eyes are green, not blue.

And they didn 't notice, then didn 't care, that her Wisconsin 's driver 's license was a different number than the one they were looking for.

Nor did they pay any attention when she pointed out that in 1996, the year of the arrest warrant they were consulting, her name wasn 't Bradley, it was Miller.

Also, she had never been to Outagamie County, where someone by the name of Patricia K. Bradley had passed about $307 in bad checks, in 1996.

None of that made any difference when the DeForest travel agent 's passport was examined on return to Milwaukee from Cancun, Mexico, with five of her travel company clients on March 8.

What followed was an experience of mistaken identity Bradley describes as humiliating, painful, expensive and avoidable.

Now, three weeks later, she has $500 of the $535 fine she paid, and she has a letter from the Outagamie County Circuit Court saying the "wrong Patricia K. Bradley was arrested. " She also has a promise from the Milwaukee County Sheriff 's Department that the incident will be investigated. She is waiting to hear back from the federal Department of Homeland Security.

But she is worried her name will pop up again. A Milwaukee County Sheriff 's Department inspector said Friday it shouldn 't happen again and placed the blame for the mistaken arrest on wrong information in the computer system.

"I can 't begin to tell you how awful that day was for me, " said Bradley.

When she and her travel group arrived at 3 p.m. that Saturday, she went through customs and got her luggage and then was asked to "step into this room. "

"They said they were going to open my luggage and the first thing that went through my mind was they were looking for booze, " she said. As a frequent traveler in her job, she said, "I know enough that you just keep your mouth shut and get through it. "

"But they kept looking and small-talking to me and I thought, Geez, what 's going on here? ' "

"Then they asked me if I had any weapons. "

Then, she said, a young woman came in and told Bradley she was arrested. The woman, a deputy sheriff identified as "A. Burmeister, " told Bradley she was under arrest for passing bad checks in Outagamie County in 1996.

"I told her I didn 't even know where Outagamie county was, that I have not bounced a check in my life, that they had the wrong person. "

The deputy told her: "This is you; you 're going to jail. "

"Then it occurred to me that I wasn 't even Patricia Bradley in 1996, I was Patricia Miller. "

Then they put the handcuffs on. She still has a bruise on her left wrist.

It was then the deputy said she could pay a fine of $535, and it had to be cash.

She was taken to the police office at the airport. When she insisted, again, they had the wrong person, one of the deputies noted that her driver 's license number was not the same as the driver 's license number of the Patricia Bradley in the warrant.

The arresting deputy said, "Yes, it is. "

Then one of the deputies said that the description doesn 't match, either.

The arresting deputy said, "it 's close enough. "

Said Bradley: "My eyes are green and hers are blue. "

The date of birth, amazingly, was the same.

With an ATM machine withdrawal and help from one of her companions, the cash was gathered. She was given a hand-written receipt.

"That was Saturday night. I cried for two days, didn 't eat or sleep, " Bradley said.

"On Monday morning, I started the process of calling and seeing what I had to do to clear this up. I didn 't know if I was dealing with identify theft or what " she said.

She was puzzled because she has gone through the Milwaukee airport numerous times, including the international arrival area, without the mistaken warrant appearing. As recently as October 2007, she returned from Canada with no problem.

The Outagamie County clerk of courts office was sympathetic and, after consultation, returned $500 it had received from Milwaukee County. It also issued an order signed by an assistant district attorney that notes the different eye colors and driver 's license numbers.

In a letter and in an interview, Bradley protested her treatment.

"The (deputy) was not interested in finding that they had the wrong person. ... I was not combative, snotty or mouthy in any way. I was scared out of my mind, crying and hyperventilating. "

Because of the incident, "I am not real trusting anymore of the police or our justice system. I never gave it much thought before this happened to me and I always thought everything is fair but now I am not sure. "

She said she doesn 't know what Milwaukee County did with the $35 that was not returned, but she wants it back.

Deputy Inspector Ed Bailey said she will get the money back, and the final report on his unit 's investigation will be complete next week.

"Information corresponding to this woman was erroneously entered into the computer system we rely on by the authorities in Outagamie County, " Bailey said.

The information, including the DeForest Patricia Bradley 's actual driver 's license number and green eyes, was in the system, he said. In fact, the DeForest Patricia Bradley 's license number was listed as a known alias.