The HOV passenger role was played by a mask, Suffolk police say

A Lake Grove man punched his ticket to traffic court Wednesday night after cops saw him driving alone in a Long Island Expressway HOV lane — a plastic drama mask playing the role of a passenger, Suffolk police said

At about 7:15 p.m., Suffolk Highway Patrol Officer Jonathan Abrams was on the LIE just before the Sagtikos Parkway at Exit 52 when, police said, he "became suspicious" of Justin Kunis as the 20-year-old drove a 2017 Nissan sedan in the HOV lane.

"Officer Abrams initiated a traffic stop and observed the driver … had attached a drama mask to the front passenger headrest in an attempt to make it look like a passenger was in the vehicle," Suffolk police said in a statement.

Kunis received a summons for an HOV occupancy violation, police said.

This isn't the first time cops have caught someone trying to shave a few minutes off their commute with the help of a fake passenger.

Within days of the HOV lane opening in 1994, police said they detected their first dummy passenger — a baby doll with a pacifier in its mouth, swaddled in an infant car seat.

Then there was the woman who tried to pass off a legless mannequin, dressed in a long, dark wig, color-coordinated blouse and blazer, scarf and eye makeup, as an actual person in 2010. (Police said an officer became suspicious when the passenger was wearing sunglasses, and the front-seat visor was pulled over to the side window, despite it being cloudy that day.)

In 2015, police pulled over a man speeding in the HOV lane — only to find that he had a "stick figure" made out of two 1-by-2 wood pieces nailed together riding shotgun in his pickup truck.

And in 2016, police said they stopped a woman driving with a "passenger" decked out in a Bronx Zoo baseball cap with a briefcase.

With Dorothy Levin and Laura Mann