Four Los Angeles men have been arrested for allegedly trying to scam their insurance companies to the tune of $141,839 by claiming their expensive cars were destroyed by a bear that turned out to be someone wearing a bear costume.
The scammers reported separate incidents in which a bear had entered their cars — a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost, a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350 — causing interior damage, and provided video footage to back their claims, according to ABC News.
However, the Department of Insurance immediately smelled a rat — or, in this case, someone in a bear costume — when they reviewed the footage.
Just to be sure, the department reached out to a biologist from the California Department of Wildlife, who then independently reviewed the evidence in the case, dubbed “Operation Bear Claw,” and confirmed “it was clearly a human in a bear suit.”
Sure enough, a search of one of the suspects’ homes turned up the bear costume.
The suspects are awaiting trial in San Bernardino County.