A bizarre insurance scam involving staged footage of a fake bear attack has landed four Los Angeles County residents in court, with authorities alleging the group defrauded insurers of more than US$140,000 by dressing up as a bear and damaging their own high-end vehicles.
The quartet — three men and one woman aged between 26 and 39 — are facing charges of conspiracy and insurance fraud after prosecutors said they orchestrated elaborate scenes of what appeared to be a brown bear breaking into luxury cars and tearing apart their interiors.
The alleged scheme unravelled earlier this year, when one insurer questioned the authenticity of a video showing a bear clawing its way through the leather upholstery of a Rolls-Royce Ghost parked in the resort town of Lake Arrowhead, northeast of Los Angeles. That footage, submitted in January, was part of a claim for damage purportedly inflicted by a wild animal.
Further claims involving two other vehicles — both Mercedes-Benz models — were subsequently identified, all allegedly featuring similar footage and damage, and all reportedly occurring at the same location on the same date. Investigators said each of the claims had been lodged with one of three different insurance companies.
California’s Department of Insurance launched a probe, code-named “Operation Bear Claw,” which concluded the creature captured on camera was not a wild animal, but rather a person wearing an ill-fitting bear costume. The supposed claw marks in the vehicles were found to have been made using meat-shredding utensils commonly found in kitchens.
Detectives executed search warrants at the homes of the accused and recovered both the bear outfit and the meat claws allegedly used to stage the damage.
The accused — named by authorities as Ruben Tamrazian, 26; Ararat Chirkinian, 39; Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, all of Glendale; and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, of Valley Village — were taken into custody late last week. Three of them remained behind bars as of Thursday, while Zuckerman was released on bond.
Authorities consulted a wildlife biologist to verify their suspicions, who confirmed the animal in the footage was clearly a human. Brown bears, in any case, have not roamed Southern California for over a century, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The only native bear species remaining in the region is the black bear, which can appear brown but is significantly different in behaviour and physical traits.
(Photo: California Department of Insurance)
The Department of Insurance noted that while it had dealt with outlandish fraud attempts before, this was the first known case involving a fake bear attack. Prosecutors in San Bernardino County are reviewing the case and are expected to file charges formally in the coming days.
The footage — captured by home surveillance cameras — shows what appears to be a bear opening vehicle doors and clambering into the cabins. In some clips, the figure swats at the dashboard or crawls into the rear seats. But inconsistencies in the creature’s movements and the unnatural appearance of the costume reportedly tipped off investigators.
A department spokesperson said that the group’s alleged attempt to exploit the mystique of bear encounters for financial gain was both unusual and calculated. “A real bear would have left behind a far greater mess,” the spokesperson said.
The case has sparked international headlines for its audacity and unusual theatrics, and serves as a reminder, officials said, that the bear may not always be what it seems.
