The NYPD mistakes the man for a burglary suspect – but finds out he’s wanted

Manhattan cops thought they caught a wanted burglar last week, only to find they had the wrong guy — who was actually a sexual assault suspect, police sources said.

Warren Oates, 40, was reportedly seen rolling a joint on Eighth Avenue on Saturday and was arrested by cops – who mistook him for Shawn Tattnall, a suspect in a July 13 burglary, sources say.

The arresting officers realized their mistake when Oates gave them his name — and then found out the alleged burglar’s look-alike was wanted instead for allegedly groping a 23-year-old woman in Manhattan on Oct. 23.

Oates is accused of grabbing the victim from behind and fondling him at the corner of West 26th Street and Sixth Avenue, according to the criminal complaint against him.

He allegedly ran away, but not before a passerby took a picture of him, prosecutors said.

After he was arrested on Saturday, Oates allegedly gave cops at the precinct a pair of lips and told a female arresting officer to “get off me” because he was getting “excited.”

He has been charged with sexual abuse and violent touching and is currently being held at Rikers Island on $2,500 bail, records show.

In a bizarre twist, suspected burglar Tattnall was already behind bars — apparently unbeknownst to Manhattan cops, who thought they saw him as they approached Oates.

Records show that Tattnall has been held on Rikers Island on $10,000 bail since he was arrested on July 15 on robbery and grand larceny charges.

He is accused of stealing a cell phone from a sleeping lanyard at the West 4th Street and Sixth Avenue subway station that day, according to the criminal complaint against him.

The incident, for which he is still wanted, was an attempted burglary at a Greenwich Village apartment building on July 13, two days before the arrest that jailed him, sources say. He was not charged in the case.

Police had also hit Oates with a resist to arrest, but the Manhattan DA’s office did not investigate those charges, prosecutors said.