Motorist fined $351 for dummy in car-pool lane

updated 1:14 p.m. ET Nov. 4, 2005

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - Say what you want about police officers, but they are no dummies. The California Highway Patrol gave Kevin Morgan, 28, of Petaluma, a $351 citation for driving in a high occupancy vehicle or "HOV" lane with a kickboxing dummy propped in the passenger seat.

The dummy was wearing a Miami Dolphins windbreaker and a baseball cap, but Officer Will Thompson noticed that the "passenger" had no legs.

"When I looked inside his window, I thought, 'Oh, that's cute,'" Thompson said. "I didn't even ask him where he got it. I think he was pretty embarrassed because all the people driving by were laughing."

Thompson often parks next to a car pool lane and stands on his car door rail to look down into passing vehicles.

His point of view allowed him to see the legless dummy.

"I think about the only thing he said was, 'Well, that didn't help me very much today, did it?'" Thompson said. "I said, 'No, it didn't.'

Thompson then placed the dummy on a freeway shoulder to deter other commuters from similar schemes.

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