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A real COVID-19 vaccination record card issued by the Centers for Disease Control. Image: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
A California bar owner has been arrested for allegedly selling fake COVID-19 vaccination cards in what s believed to be the first thwarted scheme of its kind.
Undercover agents with the state s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control bought the bogus cards for $20 each during multiple visits to the Old Corner Saloon in Clements, a small town in San Joaquin County.
The agents were told to write their names and birth dates on sticky notes and watched as employees cut the cards, added phony vaccination dates and laminated them, the Associated Press reported.
Authorities say they have arrested the owner of a Northern California bar where made-to-order fake COVID-19 vaccination cards were being sold to undercover state agents for $20 each.
May 8, 2021
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) The owner of a Northern California bar where authorities say made-to-order fake COVID-19 vaccination cards were sold to undercover state agents for $20 each was arrested in what officials call the first such foiled operation they are aware of nationwide.
The plainclothes agents from California’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control said they were told at the Old Corner Saloon in Clements to write their names and birthdates on Post-it notes and then watched as employees cut the cards, filled in identifying information and bogus vaccination dates and laminated the finished products.
“On the back where they put the two dates when you were vaccinated, they used two different color pens to make it look like it was two different times,” supervising agent Luke Blehm said Friday. “So they went to some effort to make it look authentic.”
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Calif. Man Suspect In Sale Of Fake COVID-19 Vax Cards
The owner of a Northern California bar was arrested on suspicion of selling fake COVID-19 vaccination cards to several undercover state agents for $20 each.
The owner of a Northern California bar was arrested on suspicion of selling fake COVID-19 vaccination cards to several undercover state agents for $20 each.
After receiving a tip, undercover agents with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control went to Old Corner Saloon in the city of Clements several times in April and bought fake laminated vaccination cards, officials said.
They returned to the small-town bar this week and saw others buy the phony cards and arrested the bar s owner, according to supervising agent Luke Blehm.