Published July 13, 2010

Oh, mannequin. A woman got busted in the carpool lane for having this guy in the passenger seat:

Police did not identify the mannequin.

Observations:

• My colleague Benjamin Swasey asks: “The newsroom wonders why the driver decided she needed to add a vest to the mannequin. The red shirt wasnt life-like enough?”
• I would like to know what that ball cap is. (Should have put a Sox hat on the old man.)
• Nice touch with the crossed legs.
• I had to do some serious color correction on this photo — and still it looks like a police mug shot, which, I guess, it is.

Here’s the e-mail from the Massachusetts State Police press office:

Good afternoon. You’ve all asked for a photo of the mannequin that we caught a woman driving with yesterday in the HOV lane of the Southeast Expressway. Here he is. The driver was cited for improper use of the HOV lane and fined $35. Please note we are not presently doing any sound on this. I will tell you that we do occasionally see people trying to beat the HOV regulations, and that we routinely run details at the entrance to the lanes for just this reason.

What a dummy.

Update: The mannequin is now on Facebook.