The man was stopped by state troopers, who saw a skeleton sitting upright, wearing a hat and tied to the front passenger’s seat.
“The motor unit that pulled up next to the vehicle looked inside the vehicle and at that point pretty much realized that the passenger in the front row was actually a skeleton,” Trooper Martin Sotelo told Fox 10 Phoenix. The driver was issued a $400 ticket for illegal use of an HOV lane to bypass traffic.
The officers took a photo of the fake skeleton wearing a camo hat and glasses and posted it on Twitter with the caption “Think you can use the HOV lane with Skeletor riding shotgun? You’re dead wrong!”
Think you can use the HOV lane with Skeletor riding shotgun? You’re dead wrong! ☠︎ One of our motor troopers cited the 62-year-old male driver for HOV & window tint violations on SR-101 near Apache Blvd this morning. #NiceTry #YoureNotHeMan #AZTroopers pic.twitter.com/wQYY831mNY
— Dept. Public Safety (@Arizona_DPS) January 23, 2020
Department spokesman Raul Garcia said troopers cite about 7,000 HOV lane violators every year. Last April, a man was pulled over after driving in the HOV lane with a mannequin wearing a sweatshirt, baseball cap and sunglasses.