Authorities: Fake vaccination cards sold at California bar

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The owner of a Northern California bar where authorities say made-to-order fake COVID-19 vaccination cards were sold to undercover state agents for $20 each was arrested in what officials call the first such foiled operation they are aware of nationwide.

The plainclothes agents from California's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control said they were told at the Old Corner Saloon in Clements to write their names and birthdates on Post-it notes and then watched as employees cut the cards, filled in identifying information and bogus vaccination dates and laminated the finished products.

“On the back where they put the two dates when you were vaccinated, they used two different color pens to make it look like it was two different times," supervising agent Luke Blehm said Friday. “So they went to some effort to make it look authentic.”

Vaccination cards are being used in some places as a pass for people to attend large gatherings. The European Union is considering allowing in tourists who can prove they have been vaccinated.

In California, officials have allowed venue operators to offer easier access to people with proof of vaccination. That includes preferential access to large events such as concerts and sporting events and allowing venues to create vaccinated-only sections where social distancing requirements are not as strict.

Acting on an anonymous tip to the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, four undercover agents went to the bar several times in April and bought four fake laminated vaccination cards, officials said.

They also reported seeing at least eight others buy fake cards, but haven't uncovered how many were sold.

They returned to the small-town bar this week and arrested its owner. Agents said they found another two completed...