Worker Pleads Not Guilty In Theft Of COVID-19 Vaccination Cards

POMONA, CA — A Las Vegas man pleaded not guilty Thursday to a felony charge in the theft of several hundred blank vaccination cards from a mass vaccination site in Pomona.

Muhammad Rauf Ahmed, 46, was charged in June with one felony count of grand theft, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Ahmed is accused of stealing a total of 528 vaccination cards from the Pomona Fairplex vaccination site with the intent to resell them, prosecutors said.

Ahmed worked at the vaccination site as a nonclinical contract employee, which allowed him access to the cards, according to the La Verne Police Department.

Police received a tip in April that someone was taking cards from the site. Ahmed is accused of telling co-workers that he took the cards with him to pre-fill them to cut down on his workload, police said.

Detectives went to the hotel where Ahmed was staying and found stacks of blank vaccination cards in his room and car, according to La Verne police.

Ahmed was arrested and released on the same day, according to jail records from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

"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 when the charge was announced.

City News Service contributed to this report.