SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Driver tries to cheat HOV system with Dos Equis spokesman cutout
Mar 25, 2015, 1:21 PM | Updated: 1:41 pm
The driver may have got away with it, but he picked a cutout of a very recognizable person. (Photo courtesy of the Washington State Patrol)
(Photo courtesy of the Washington State Patrol)
Getting a ticket for violating HOV rules doesn’t always get a laugh, but when it does, it goes viral.
A Washington State Patrol trooper pulled over a man who tried to cheat the HOV system by placing a cardboard cutout of Jonathan Goldsmith, best known these days as “the most interesting man in the world” in Dos Equis beer commercials.
“This guy, he takes the cake for the most creative and innovative we’ve seen,” Washington State Patrol spokesman Trooper Guy Gill told The Dori Monson Show Wednesday.
The driver may have got away with it, but he picked a cutout of a very recognizable person, Gill said. The man was pulled over on I-5 near Fife.
“I guess he should have probably picked a face that we wouldn’t immediately recognize,” Gill quipped. “He picked a very recognizable prop.”
The trooper and the driver had a good laugh, despite the driver receiving a $124 ticket. The driver was holding back laughter during the whole encounter, Gill told Dori.
“It was lighthearted.”
The driver told the trooper the cutout was his best friend. The cutout “just sits there and doesn’t say anything,” the driver told the trooper.
Though it was a humorous incident, Dori wanted to know how often people violate HOV rules. Dori told Gill he often sees people cheating the system on the on-ramps to I-5, too.
Troopers enforce the rule heavily, but, “when you go fishing, do you catch all the fish in the lake?”
