"Car Pooler" Busted for Mannequin Passenger in HOV Lane
Suffolk County resident K.A. Frascinella tried to get around HOV lane restrictions by having a mannequin as a co-pilot, but a super observant deputy sheriff put a stop to her charade on Tuesday.
Eagle-eyed Deputy Sheriff Robert Howard says he got suspicious when he saw that the 61-year-old's "passenger" was wearing sunglasses with the visor down on a cloudy day and pulled her over.
"Everything looked fairly normal until I jumped out of the HOV lane and I got up next to her and I said 'you've got to be kidding me'," Howard told CBS affiliate WCBS.
Howard says that Frascinella tried to continue the charade by innocently asking him why he had pulled her over.
"I said, 'uh, first your license, registration and insurance card," Howard told the station. "And I also want to see your passenger's ID'."
Frascinella may not have appreciated Howard's diligence but the other motorists definitely approved.
Everybody was stopping and looking over. People hitting the horns, basically very happy that we took one of these HOV violators using a mannequin-off the road," Howard told WCBS.
As for Frascinella she got a $135 fine and two points on her license.
The mannequin had no comment.