Thinking about trying to trick the CHP the next time you get stopped? Well, here’s some examples where it didn’t work.

Last Sunday, the CHP stopped a VW Jetta after seeing the driver make an unsafe U-turn on Stony Point Road near Todd Road. But as the officer walked up to the car he saw the driver and passenger switch seats. But the officer wasn’t fooled, and the driver went to jail on suspicion of DUI and driving without a license. The passenger also was unlicensed.

Officer Jon Sloat, spokesman for the local CHP office, said it’s always puzzling when drivers and passengers switch spots– “they think the officer can’t see into the car.”

In a recent case, he said, a driver and passenger switched spots while being pursued by an officer down the highway at 65 mph. Once stopped, both were arrested on DUI — after all, both had been driving at one point.

Last Friday, an officer stopped two teenagers hitchhiking on the central Windsor onramp to Highway 101. Both gave false birth dates and spellings of their names. The officer ultimately figured out the truth and both had warrants. Both did catch a ride — to jail.

Sloat said suspects regularly lie to officers about their ages or names, apparently hoping that the officers will be fooled and will leave.

“If you’re lying, there’s gotta be a reason behind it,” he said.

He said that with the addition of car pool lanes in Santa Rosa, a couple of drivers tried to slip by officers with mannequins as their passenger — unsuccessfully.

As for drivers who use the car pool lanes illegally but quickly change lanes when they spot an officer ahead, that also doesn’t work, Sloat said. The officers pay attention to who’s in the car pool lanes and merely let the drivers catch up so that they can be stopped and ticketed.

One of Sloat’s more memorable stops was a suspected DUI who carried a note in his pocket saying, “Fred spilled beer on himself,” signed by “The bartender.”

Yes, Sloat said, Fred smelled like beer. And Fred went to jail.

So you think you can fool the CHP?