Police bust car window to save frozen woman — or so they thought
Images from Hudson (NY) Police Department
Thanks to Andrew Doyle for sending in this story from Hudson, New York.
The call came in from a “very upset” citizen at 8:30 a.m. Friday, telling Hudson police there was an elderly woman in a parked car “frozen to death.”
Police officers and the Greenport Rescue Squad rushed to the scene of the Subaru on City Hall Place. In the bitter cold, it appeared that woman seated in the passenger seat, wearing an oxygen mask, wasn’t moving. The car had snow cover, indicating it may have been parked there overnight.
A sergeant busted the rear passenger window and opened the door to discover the woman was a very realistic life-sized mannequin, though the clothes, glasses, teeth, shoes and skin blemishes were quite detailed, police said. It was even buckled in.
The vehicle’s owner eventually returned to his car and solved the mystery: He is a sales manager for a company that manufacturers medical training aids, and the “woman” is a CPR training device, police said.
“The owner of the mannequin stated that he transports the device in his car in that manner, to include the wearing of a seat belt,” police said in the press release.
“I can’t put what he said on air, but he was not very happy with the police department for forcing entry into his car,” Hudson Police Department Sgt. Randy Clarke told ABC affiliate WTEN. “If it was a joke, it was a very poor tasteful joke. If it was a matter of convenience for him — it was a station wagon — carry your mannequin a little bit better. The mannequin was in the front seat with a seat belt and appearing to be a passenger in the car.”
