The report to police was deadly serious — an elderly woman apparently frozen to death inside a parked car in Hudson, New York.
Police in the city said they responded to the call Friday morning with an emergency rescue crew. It was cold — around five degrees Fahrenheit — and the car had snow cover and looked like it hadn’t been moved in a while.
Authorities saw an elderly woman in the front passenger seat, police said. She was wearing an oxygen mask. She did not move and was unresponsive.
An officer smashed the rear window, opened the door…and discovered the “woman” was really a life sized mannequin. The kind that is used in CPR training.
But this was no ordinary mannequin. Photos from the police show it was very detailed — with hair, real clothing and shoes and even skin blemishes. It was even wearing a seat belt.
Police: Car owner was ‘quite vocal’
Hudson police said the owner of the car eventually showed up at the scene. The unidentified man said he is a sales rep for a company that makes medical training devices.
He told police he always transports the mannequin in his car wearing a seat belt and was upset that police broke his car window.
“He apparently was quite vocal and vulgar to my Sergeant,” Hudson Police Chief Edward Moore said in a statement.
No charged were filed, but Chief Moore defended the action of his officer.
“If you park your locked vehicle on the street on a sub-zero night with a life size realistic mannequin seated in it … we will break your window,” he said.