Arizona Man Caught Using Inflatable Grinch To Sneak Into HOV Lane

A man was pulled over in Arizona last week after using the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane with a rather green-looking passenger. This isn't a case of some motion sickness; instead, it's a case of the driver using an inflatable Grinch to try to fool the police.

If you don't know, an HOV lane is a separate lane on some freeways that can only be used by vehicles with more than one "human" passenger, otherwise known as a carpool lane. Due to the restrictions, the lanes are usually less trafficked, which can mean a significantly shortened transit time during peak hours.

Now since we live in a law-abiding society, it's unthinkable that there are people who would try to get around this system, people who use the lanes even though there's only one occupant in the vehicle. We've heard stories about this in the past, but I don't think any are as creative as this one.

The Arizona state police tweeted a picture of the incident, with both occupants in the vehicle on display. The tweet made light of the traffic stop saying that a trooper spotted the driver in the HOV lane with a "Seusspicious-looking passenger." Unfortunately for the driver, there were no other actual passengers in the vehicle resulting in a citation for the criminal mastermind and the police tweeting out that this is in fact illegal, if not a bit festive.

It's a brazen attempt at skirting the law, and maybe something a little more lowkey would have benefitted the driver better rather than one of such a vivid green hue. If it were us, we'd have maybe considered a jacket on the Grinch, maybe even a hat. Or how about something just not bright green? All sound like good options.