Carpool Dummy Sells on eBay for $15,000

Carpool Dummy Sells on eBay for $15,000

DENVER (AP) - A makeshift mannequin that failed to fool police monitoring the high-occupancy vehicle lane on a highway has fetched $15,000 in an auction on eBay, with proceeds going to charity, the buyer announced.

A company called Video Professor bought the Styrofoam head, coat hanger, and clothing stuffed with newspapers from carpool-lane scofflaw Greg Pringle, 53, said Brian Olson, a spokesman for the company.

Olson said the computer tutoring company will take Tillie to various events and later auction her off again for charity in June.

As part of his sentence handed down earlier this month, Pringle agreed to donate any profits from a Web site - launched to free "Tillie" after she was impounded by police - and the auction to a driver safety awareness program.

"We've rescued Tillie from a life of crime and we hope to rehabilitate her so she can be a contributing dummy to our society," Olson said Thursday, The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News reported.

Pringle also was fined $115 and ordered to hold a sign alongside the highway for four hours reading: "HOV lane not for dummies." He was pulled over and ticketed Jan. 26 for driving in the lane reserved for car pools, motorcycles, buses, and hybrid vehicles.

Pringle has said it cost him $10 to create Tillie.