Man Charged With Stealing Blank COVID-19 Vaccine Cards In Pomona

POMONA, CA — An employee working at a COVID-19 mass vaccination site in Pomona was charged Wednesday for allegedly stealing more than 500 blank vaccination cards.

Muhammad Rauf Ahmed, 45, of Las Vegas, was charged with one felony count of grand theft by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office after the La Verne Police Department received a tip on April 27 about someone stealing vaccination cards from the Pomona Fairplex mass vaccination site. Ahmed was employed at the site as a nonclinical contract worker, according to La Verne police.

Ahmed reportedly took the cards from the site and claimed he was getting them pre-filled in order to cut down on his workload, a La Verne police detective told the Los Angeles Times. Blank cards are prohibited from leaving vaccination sites and detectives reportedly found stacks of cards in Ahmed's car and hotel room.

A total of 528 vaccination cards were eventually recovered by police, according to La Verne officials.

A single blank vaccination card can be illegally sold for at least $15, the district attorney's office said. The blank cards recovered by police could've netted Ahmed at least $7,920.

“Selling fraudulent and stolen vaccine cards is illegal, immoral and puts the public at risk of exposure to a deadly virus,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement.

Ahmed is scheduled to be arraigned at the Pomona branch of the Los Angeles County Superior Court on August 25.