Oak Lawn woman misspelled ‘Moderna’ on fake COVID-19 vaccine card to get into Hawaii: authorities

Authorities say a southwest suburban woman used a phony COVID-19 vaccination card that misspelled “Moderna” to get into Hawaii for a vacation last week without quarantining for 10 days as required.

Now Chloe Mrozak’s trip has been extended at a Honolulu jail as she faces misdemeanor charges of violating the archipelago state’s coronavirus emergency proclamation, which requires visitors to show proof of full vaccination or a negative test in order to roam the islands freely.

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Screeners were skeptical of the 24-year-old Oak Lawn resident’s supposed CDC card when she arrived Aug. 23 at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, according to a report filed by investigators with the Hawaii attorney general’s office.

The card claimed Mrozak received her first “Maderna” vaccine dose in Delaware from a National Guard member named “cpl wolf,” with a second dose administered by a “ssgt montey,” photocopies of the alleged document show.

Departamento del Fiscal General de Hawái

Mrozak still made it through the screening before investigators determined the hotel and return flight information she had listed on her state-mandated trip record was bogus, authorities said. Public health officials in Delaware later told investigators they had no record of her receiving a shot in their jurisdiction.

Mrozak allegedly ignored calls and emails from investigators over the next few days, so they waited for her at the airport for her return flight Saturday.

When they arrested her at the Southwest Airlines counter, she allegedly “made a spontaneous utter” that she’d gotten her shot at a doctor’s office and paid for it, the report says.

Departamento de Seguridad Pública de Hawái

She was charged with two counts of falsifying vaccination documents, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 or a year in prison.

Mrozak’s public defender could not immediately be reached for comment. Calls to her listed home phone number in Oak Lawn went unanswered.

A judge initially set bail at $2,000 at a hearing Monday, records show. She remained in custody at the Oahu Community Correctional Center until Wednesday, when she was released on her own recognizance, according to court records.

Mrozak is due back in court Sept. 22.

At least four other people have been arrested in Hawaii with bogus vaccination cards so far this year, according to Hawaii News Now.

Travelers to Chicago are urged to show proof of vaccination or a negative test under COVID-19 guidelines that are similar in wording to Hawaii’s, but the city’s travel advisory is purely educational and carries no penalties. It had been an order in Chicago from July 2020 through June, but it wasn’t even enforced over that period.

Contributing: Madeline Kenney