Insurance Scam Bear Attack: But It Was Just a Guy in a Costume

Remember these idiots?

A group of Southern California residents just got sentenced after pulling off one of the strangest insurance scams… Trying to pass off staged “bear attacks” on luxury cars as real.

Rewinding Back Two Years

The whole thing started with a claim filed after an alleged incident at Lake Arrowhead on January 28, 2024. The group told their insurance company that a bear had broken into their 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost and torn up the interior, leaving scratches and damage. To back it up, they even submitted video footage that supposedly showed the animal inside the car.

But investigators weren’t buying it.

Operation Bear Claw

In what authorities later called “Operation Bear Claw,” officials took a closer look at the footage and quickly realized something was off. The “bear” in the video didn’t move like an actual animal. Experts from California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife were brought in to review it and their conclusion was: it was obviously a human wearing a bear costume.

As the investigation unfolded, authorities discovered this wasn’t a one-off attempt. The same group had filed multiple claims with different insurance companies, all tied to the same fake incident.

Time For Some Arrests

Eventually, four people were arrested in connection with the scheme. Three of them, Alfiya Zuckerman, Ruben Tamrazian, and Vahe Muradkhanyan, have now been sentenced to 180 days in jail and ordered to pay back the money. A fourth person, Ararat Chirkinian, is still awaiting the outcome of their case.

Altogether, the bogus claims cost insurance companies more than $140,000.

Not exactly the kind of “bear market” they were hoping for.