Man dressed up as a bear to get insurance on expensive car

Cops bust scammers/wirestock

Law enforcement in Los Angeles, California, has arrested four people on suspicion of committing one of the most elaborate insurance fraud schemes we've ever heard of.

Police believe one of the suspects dressed up as a bear to damage luxury cars and demand payouts. This is reported by The Drive

Operation Bear Claw began when an insurance company notified the state Department of Insurance of a possible case of fraud. On paper, the situation was unusual, but not unbelievable: one of the suspects claimed that his 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost had been hit by a bear and damaged the interior. Why not? Bears aren't usually considered prime suspects in thefts, but strange things do happen, like a moose damaging a BMW 8 Series, which is why we have insurance. The person who filed the lawsuit added that the incident was caught on tape by a home video surveillance camera.

Photos released by the Insurance Department show that the damage doesn't exactly look like a bear,unless we're talking about a carefree bear. The scratches on the door panels and seats look relatively shallow and unnaturally even. The video is even more suspicious: the bear walks straight to the Ghost's door handle and appears to open it just as a human would.

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The same bear costume/Police photo

Intrigued, to say the least, detectives reviewed the damage report and discovered that the suspects had filed two other reports on the same day and at the same location. They reported bear damage to a 2015 Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes-Benz E350, both insured with two different companies, and provided similar video footage.

It takes more than a simple guess to arrest someone, so law enforcement turned to a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to confirm their suspicions. We can't imagine that a biology degree requires taking a course called “How to Spot a Fake Bear 101,” but the scientist immediately confirmed the police department's suspicions: The animal rummaging through cars is definitely not a bear.

That was enough for police to issue a search warrant. And so, investigators found a bear costume with sharp hand claws in the house. The four suspects were charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy. If found guilty, they will likely have to pay a fine, repay the $141,839 they claimed from three insurance companies, and repair their expensive cars out of pocket—and that won't be cheap unless they have another creative plan up their furry sleeve. Maybe some bear suit patches can cover up some of the scratches?