LOS ANGELES, Nov 14 — Four people who allegedly dressed as bears and damaged their own luxury cars in a bid to defraud insurance companies were arrested in the US state of California on Wednesday.
Suspicions were aroused when a claim was made for ripped seats and damaged doors on a luxury Rolls-Royce Ghost, an exclusive vehicle worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Claimants said a bear had got into the car when it was parked in Lake Arrowhead, a mountain spot outside Los Angeles, wreaking havoc on its interior.
To back up their claim, they provided photos of the damage as well as footage from a security camera, which they said showed the animal inside the vehicle.
But the company smelled a rat and contacted insurance fraud detectives.
“Upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume,” said a release from the California Department of Insurance.
Investigators then combed through records and found two other claims against different insurance companies alleging bear damage to different vehicles — a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350 — at the same spot.
Both claims had also been accompanied by video footage of the same “bear” rampaging around the vehicles.
“To further ensure it was not actually a bear in the video, the Department had a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife review the three alleged bear videos and they also opined it was clearly a human in a bear suit,” Wednesday’s statement said.
“After executing a search warrant, detectives found the bear costume in the suspects’ home.”
Ruben Tamrazian, 26; Ararat Chirkinian, 39; Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32; and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, have all been charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy over the claims, which were worth over US$140,000.
Black bears, which are native to California, occasionally do get inside vehicles in the hunt for food, and can cause tremendous damage. — AFP
