Driver cited for using HOV lane with an inflatable Grinch dummy in passenger seat

PHOENIX – A person in Arizona was cited for driving in the high-occupancy vehicle lane with an inflatable Grinch as a passenger.

According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, last week at about 8 a.m., a driver was on Interstate 10 in Phoenix when a trooper saw the “Seusspicious-looking” passenger and no other passengers in the car.

The inflatable Grinch was as charming as an eel to the trooper, and couldn’t get the driver out of a citation for their HOV violation.

Driving in the HOV lane requires at least two people in a car, and this mean green one didn't count. Neither did a fake skeleton used by another driver in Arizona last year.

Some motorists have had more success driving around with life-like human mannequins. One man in California who said he had used a mannequin – adorned with gray hair, wrinkles, glasses, a baseball hat and a face mask – as his passenger claimed he got away with driving in the HOV lane for a year and a half before he was finally cited, according to the Associated Press. 

The Arizona DPS said, "Don't be a dummy and try to get around the HOV law."

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