Inflatable Grinch Gets Arizona Driver In HOV Lane Ticketed

It’s that time of year when seeing inflatable holiday decorations is a common feature across the nation. The public roadway isn’t a place where you’d normally see one though. And when an Arizona State Trooper noticed a ‘seusspicious-looking “passenger”’ it turned out that the driver of the vehicle thought they could use the decoration as a free pass to use the HOV lane.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety first posted about the incident on its Twitter account. The driver and his Grinch inflatable might have fooled speed cameras or other drivers, but one AZ trooper pulled them over and got the photo that leads our story. There’s no account of exactly how the traffic stop went.

We do know that this practice is illegal and that the driver received a citation according to the AZ DPS. The law in question, 28-737 specifically prohibits the use of the HOV lane during times when it’s restricted to vehicles with two or more persons. There are exceptions for motorcycles, public transportation vehicles, tow truck drivers, and more.

More: Texas Driver Cuts Into The HOV Lane, Causes A Massive Crash With Ford Explorer

This isn’t the first time that we’ve heard of similar tactics to take advantage of the HOV lane. Back in March of 2021, we reported on one person in Los Angeles who used a super realistic mannequin to evade HOV prohibitions.

According to the driver in that incident, they’d been using the doll to drive in the HOV lane for “a year and a half” before getting caught. Of course, the doll looked a lot more like a real human as opposed to a blow-up doll. It even had wrinkles, a ball cap, and a face mask. 

There’s no telling exactly how long the driver with their Grinch counterpart has been pulling this trick but the holiday timing makes it seem like it must have been a recent addition to the passenger seat. A Grinch inflatable in a car’s passenger seat would look even more out of place in July than it does right now.

Image Credit: AZ DPS