Police: HOV lane user dressed up seat to look like a passenger

Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Police in New York said a man traveling in a high-occupancy vehicle lane was stopped when an officer noticed the passenger was just the back of the seat dressed in a jacket and hat.

The Suffolk County Police Department said in an Instagram post that Officer Cody Exum stopped a driver on the Long Island Expressway at 9 a.m. Thursday when he noticed the passenger in a car traveling in the HOV lane "didn't look quite right."

The officer quickly discovered the "front seat passenger was not a passenger at all."

"It was the front seat dressed up to look like a person with a jacket pulled over the seat and a hat and hood on the headrest," the post said.

The driver was ticketed for an HOV occupancy violation.