Officials in California announced this week that four individuals were arrested in an insurance scheme that allegedly included one person wearing a bear costume in a staged attack.
California is no stranger to bears breaking into vehicles, but when footage surfaced of bears slipping into luxury cars, it alerted insurers that something was amiss.
Operation Bear Claw
In an operation called "Bear Claw," the California Department of Insurance announced Wednesday that four Los Angeles residents were arrested on charges of defrauding three insurance companies of nearly $142,000 by falsely claiming that bears had damaged their vehicles.
According to the California Department of Insurance, the group submitted video footage allegedly showing a "bear" inside a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes in the San Bernardino Mountains last January as part of their damage claims to insurers. Photos released by the department reveal apparent scratch marks on the vehicles' seats and doors.
However, the California Department of Insurance said in a press release that "upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume."
"Detectives found two additional insurance claims with two different insurance companies, for the suspects with the same date of loss and at the same location. Each of those claims involved two different vehicles, a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350, and the suspects again appeared to use a bear costume to make it appear that a bear also entered and damaged those vehicles," the California Department of Insurance said. "They provided the video footage to the other insurance companies as well to substantiate their claims."
The four individuals arrested in the scheme were later identified as 26-year-old Ruben Tamrazian of Glendale; 39-year-old Ararat Chirkinian of Glendale; 32-year-old Vahe Muradkhanyan of Glendale; 39-year-old Alfiya Zuckerman of Valley Village.
Each of the four individuals were charged with conspiracy and insurance fraud, the California Department of Insurance said.
Bear Costume
According to the California Department of Insurance, officials had a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to review the videos to "further ensure it was not actually a bear in the video."
Following a review, the biologist "opined it was clearly a human in a bear suit."
Detectives discovered the bear costume at the suspects' residence after executing a search warrant, the Department of Insurance reported.
Bear Attacks
Bears rummaging through trash cans or breaking into homes in search of food have become a growing issue across California—from the Sierra's Lake Tahoe region to the foothill suburbs of Los Angeles, where bears have been spotted raiding refrigerators and cooling off in backyard pools and hot tubs.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
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Matthew Impelli
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ...
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