Illinois woman caught at Honolulu airport with ‘Maderna’ vaccine card

HONOLULU (KHON2) — A 24-year-old woman was arrested and charged on suspicion of falsified vaccination documents. The Department of the Attorney General said she submitted a fake COVID vaccination card in order to avoid the state’s mandatory 10-day quarantine.

Chloe Mrozak, of Illinois, also allegedly falsified information on her quarantine location.

On Aug. 23, the Safe Travels Program administrator reported a possible fraudulent COVID vaccination card after Mrozak uploaded and presented the card to the airport screener. The screener failed to confirm Mrozak’s hotel reservation prior to her leaving the processing center. According to court documents, no reservation was found after contacting the hotel that she listed in her Safe Travels forms, and Mrozak did not provide her hotel reservation number and return flight information.

Her vaccination card also said that Mrozak allegedly received the “Maderna” vaccine.

“That’s one indication, as well as other things, that in the card they thought it was suspicious, and as part of being suspicious, they did an excellent job of notifying us,” Special Agent Wilson Lau of the Department of the Attorney General said.

In addition, Mrozak listed Delaware as the place where she got her vaccination, but no record was found under her name and date of birth.

“The AG Quarantine Compliance [Check] (QCC) Team conducted its investigations, contacted the appropriate state that does the vaccination and determined there was no record of the suspect that had been vaccinated,” Special Agent Lau said.

After finding her profile on Facebook, Special Agent Lau determined that Mrozak had a distinctive tattoo on her left hip. On Aug. 26, he met with other special agents with the QCC Team to discuss her case. The team believed she would return home via Southwest Airlines and not American Airlines since majority of the flights are purchased as round-trip tickets to reduce the cost.

“It was a joint effort that we were able to locate her and found out when she was leaving, even though she was evasive about her lodging location,” Special Agent Lau said.

After scouting the area, the QCC team located Mrozak on Aug. 28, based on her tattoo, at the Southwest Airlines counter where another woman was travelling with her.

She was arrested on suspicion of falsified vaccination documents on Aug. 28 at the airport before she could leave the island. Unable to post bail, Special Agent Lau reported that Mrozak was transported to Queen’s for COVID screening and later transferred to HPD. Bail was set at $2,000.

Special Agent Lau says there may be more cases of fraudulent vaccine cards.

“I can say that there is still ongoing investigations of various false vaccination documents that has come through DKI, and they are actively being investigated at this point in time,” he said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story had a spelling error in Special Agent Wilson Lau’s name.