Chloe Mrozak.Photo: Hawaii Dept. of Public Safety
A trip to Hawaii ended with a trip to jail for an Illinois woman, accused of using a falsifiedCOVID-19vaccination card to board a plane to the Aloha state — and authorities allege a spelling mistake gave her away.
PEOPLE obtained a copy of the criminal complaint against Mrozak. In the complaint, investigators allege that when she travelled to Hawaii on Aug. 23, she presented screeners at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport with a fake vaccination card.
So, when an administrator for the state’s Safe Travels Program flagged her vaccination card after realizing the word “Moderna” — the drug company that makes a common COVID-19 vaccine — had been misspelled as “Maderna,” investigators could not locate her, according to the complaint.
The bogus card allegedly claimed that Mrozak had received her shots from the National Guard in Delaware, the complaint states.
Hawaiian authorities reached out to their counterparts in Delaware, and learned there were no records of Mrozak receiving any Moderna doses in that state.
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Mrozak was arrested Saturday in the airport when she returned to catch her flight back home.
The complaint alleges she was detained at the Southwest Airlines counter.
Mrozak is charged with two misdemeanor counts of falsifying vaccination documents, and faces up to a year in prison and up to $5,000 in fines if convicted.
On Monday, Mrozak posted $2,000 for her release.
It was unclear if Mrozak had entered pleas to the charges, and neither she nor her public defender could not be reached for comment Thursday.
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source: people.com
