By Tim Binnall
Authorities in California couldn't help but marvel at the length one motorist went to in order to use the carpool lane when the driver was caught with an incredibly realistic mannequin riding shotgun. The surprising stop reportedly occurred last month when Highway Patrol Officer Rodrigo Jimenez was keeping an eye on traffic passing through the community of Glendora along Interstate 210. As an otherwise innocuous Toyota Tacoma zipped past him in the carpool lane, he caught sight of the passenger in the vehicle and sensed that something was amiss.
Jimenez's police instincts were proven correct when he pulled the driver over and, upon walking up to the vehicle, discovered that there was a mannequin in the passenger seat. The life-size doll, which sported a full head of hair and some remarkably realistic wrinkles on its face, was clad in a red flannel shirt, a Cleveland Indians baseball cap, glasses, and a face mask. Taken together, it's actually rather impressive that Jimenez caught on to the ruse, especially since the vehicle presumably passed him at a high rate of speed.
Sharing a photo of the mannequin on Facebook, the California Highway Patrol of Baldwin Park declared that the mannequin was "by far, one of the best dummies we have ever seen" and joked that "to clarify, we are referring to this fake passenger." Despite crediting the driver with going the proverbial extra mile to get into the carpool lane and applauding the person for going so far as to equip the doll with a face mask so that it was "following CDC guidelines," cops still issued him a citation for the illegal maneuver.