Plant City police are looking for stolen car with vials of COVID-19 vaccine inside
Police in Plant City are searching for a man accused of stealing a car from a vaccination site that had vials of the COVID-19 vaccine inside, police said Thursday.
On Wednesday around 3 p.m., a man walked onto the Strawberry Festival grounds on West Reynolds Street and took off in a gray four-door 2018 Hyundai Accent with the Florida tag NPJJ58, according to the Plant City Police Department.
Authorities said there were 30 vials inside the car, properly refrigerated, which amounted to about 150 to 180 doses, according to TV station WTXL, the ABC affiliate in Tallahassee.
The Strawberry Festival grounds are a designated vaccine distribution center for Plant City, in Hillsborough County. Police say that the person driving the car with the vials got out of the vehicle briefly, with the keys in the ignition, to ask where he should head to with the vaccines, WTXL reported.
That’s when the suspect got into the car and drove off.
Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay are offering up to a $5,000 reward for information on the whereabouts of the vehicle, the suspect or the vaccine vials.
Anyone with information is asked to call Plant City Police Department at 813-757-9200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873 TIPS (8477).
