By Tim Binnall
An attentive California Highway Patrol Officer caught a motorist cruising in the carpool lane with a rather elaborate mannequin riding in the backseat. The odd bust reportedly occurred last Wednesday evening near San Francisco. As officer Susan Withers was watching traffic, an unusual-looking minivan driving in the carpool lane caught her eye and she decided to take action. "Something didn't look right," explained CHP information officer Darrel Horner, "she made the stop, and lo and behold, the passenger in back wasn't moving or saying anything." It was then that Withers realized that the 'person' was actually a mannequin which the motorist had outfitted to look fairly realistic.
To that end, the figurine sported a straw hat, dark sunglasses, a goatee, and even tattoos along its arms. Although Horner noted that the highway patrol often catch people illegally using the carpool late, he observed that this particular instance was "the first time I've seen this in this area." It would seem that the department had some appreciation for the attempted ruse as they shared an image of the mannequin on social media and wrote "that moment you get pulled over for a carpool violation and your passenger in the back chooses to remain silent." Although they did not indicate how the stop was ultimately resolved, it's probably a safe bet that the driver was ticketed for the ill-advised attempt at cutting down on their commute by way of the weird scheme.