Carpool dummy gets ticket for not wearing seatbelt

A commuter who put a homemade dummy in the passenger seat to sneak into the car pool lane was caught on Wednesday near Seattle.

But it wasn’t because a cop realized the passenger was fake.

Instead, the State Patrol trooper noticed the dangling belt buckle on the passenger side and suspected a seat belt violation.


Photo from here.

Patrol spokeswoman Christina Martin said that the driver acknowledged trying to beat traffic by using the HOV lane.

He created his passenger by draping a rain jacket over plastic piping, topping it off with a Halloween mask of Gandalf, the “Lord of the Rings” wizard, a beard and a baseball cap.

The trooper issued a $124 ticket and confiscated the dummy.