Tow me if you dare: drivers trick road police

St. Petersburg drivers are using child dolls to protect their cars from being towed away by road police, Fontanka.ru reports. The trick discourages officers due to a recent scandal, when a car with an eight-year-old boy locked inside was evacuated from th

The incident happened in February, when Igor Ilyasov's car overheated and he locked his son Sasha and ran to a nearby shop to buy some water.

When he returned five minutes later he discovered that traffic police has seized the vehicle. Ilyasov managed to retrieve both the boy and the car hours later.

An official investigation resulted in harsh penalties for the officer responsible.

Now clever drivers, when parking in restricted areas, put a doll that looks like a sleeping child on the back seat. They hope a casual glance would not reveal the 'baby' is a fake and an inspection policeman would ignore the car just to be on the safe side.