“It was funny when the photo came in for processing and it appeared that no one was at the wheel, but it was an English car, which means the driver’s seat is on the other side, so the camera didn’t catch the actual driver’s face,” the Bayreuth police spokesperson told The Local on Wednesday.

The jocular driver was on the A9 motorway speeding at 155 kph in a 120 zone, which earned him or her a €50 fine and three points for traffic violation at Germany’s central traffic register in Flensburg. It was the driver’s first violation in the area under Bayreuth police jurisdiction, but the perpetrator has apparently pulled the same stunt for several other Bavarian traffic radars, the spokesperson said.

A police statement initially announced that the man-sized puppet appeared to be either Grover or Ernie from the iconic children’s show Sesame Street, but The Local’s in-depth research revealed the puppet actually resembled Animal, the Muppet Show’s crazed drummer in the band Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem.

“That may well be,” the police spokesperson said. “We weren’t really sure, but we knew it was one of the muppets.”

The Bayreuth police department won’t pursue the true driver of the Audi because it had foreign plates, he said, but they have still asked for the public to report information regarding clues to the driver’s identity.