March 24 (UPI) — A California driver was pulled over in Los Angeles county when they were seen driving in a carpool lane with an empty jacket as their sole passenger.
The California Highway Patrol’s Baldwin Park station said on social media that an officer on Interstate 10 in the West Covina area spotted a vehicle in the carpool lane with a suspiciously insubstantial passenger.
“That ‘passenger’ turned out to be a jacket carefully wrapped around the front seat with the seat belt fastened across it to resemble a person,” the post said. “Nice try — but jackets don’t count toward carpool lane requirements.”
The CHP stressed that carpool lanes are reserved for vehicles that meet occupancy requirements.
“Fictitious friends and mannequin copilots won’t cut it,” officials wrote.