DENVER (AP) – A makeshift mannequin that failed to fool police monitoring the high-occupancy vehicle lane on Highway 36 fetched $15,000 in an auction on eBay, with proceeds going to charity, the buyer announced.

Denver-based Video Professor bought the Styrofoam head, coat hanger, and clothing stuffed with newspapers from HOV scofflaw Greg Pringle, 53, of Broomfield, said Brian Olson, a company spokesman.

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 the Alive At 25 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.

Police duped by movie filming

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. (AP) – A movie set at the downtown post office turned all too real for a group of high school filmmakers.

Members of the high school Spanish club were shooting a movie Thursday night when the police showed up believing a hostage crisis was going on inside the post office.

But apparently, someone saw the teens carrying toy guns into the building on Centre Street, which is the heart of the town’s historical district. When they couldn’t get an answer to calls placed inside the building, they assumed the worst. Police cordoned off the block, cleared nearby buildings and surrounded the post office ready for a hostage crisis. When a group of students left the post office, they were ordered to get on the ground, face down.

Postmaster Ron Steedley had given permission for the school group to use the post office after hours to make a movie, “Rolling Thunder.” Steedley said he didn’t think the students’ movie would frighten anyone.

Man comes clean after getting stuck

GRANGER, Wash. (AP) – Sometimes honesty is the best policy.

A man found stuck in a bank chimney didn’t try to cover up his intent.

“We asked him what he was doing down there and he said, “What do you think? I’m trying to rob the bank,” said Police Chief Robert Perales.

Firefighters threw down a rope and pulled out a soot-covered 26-year-old man, who was arrested on the spot. He was booked into the municipal jail in nearby Wapato.

Police in this lower Yakima Valley town had been summoned Thursday morning to the U.S. Bank because of an apparent break-in attempt. They discovered the stuck suspect after finding the top had been removed from the ventilation shaft for the furnace.

The few, the proud, the geriatric recruit

SAUGUS, Calif. (AP) – Sonia Goldstein was flattered by the nice recruiting letter asking her to consider becoming one of “the few, the proud.”

But at age 78, she believes she’s just a little old to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Goldstein told KCAL-TV on Friday. “My girls were sitting here … we were in hysterics, we laughed so hard.”

The letter told her the corps could use her unique language skills, but also warned that life as a Marine would test her physical and mental abilities “beyond anything you’ve ever known.”

“There I am with my walker. I can’t maneuver from here to there without it,” said Goldstein, who added that her only language is English.

“I’ll do whatever I could for this wonderful country we live in,” she said. “But you know, this is kind of stretching it a bit.”

The Marines ordinarily recruit people 18 to 27, said Maj. Joseph Kloppel, a corps spokesman. He said the letter must have been sent by mistake.

“Seventy-eight is obviously too old,” Kloppel added.

AP-ES-03-25-06 0336EST