Four people in Southern California allegedly attempted insurance fraud when they conspired together and submitted several insurance claims after a person in a bear costume faked attacks on their vehicles, including a Rolls Royce. The California Department of Insurance (DOI) says authorities have arrested four suspects and there is an arrest warrant out for a fifth person. The DOI is calling it “Operation Bear Claw.”
“The suspects claimed on January 28, 2024 in Lake Arrowhead a bear entered their 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost and caused interior damage to the vehicle,” says the DOI in a press release. “They provided video footage to their insurance company, which showed the alleged bear in the vehicle.”
However, the video and the “damage” weren’t too convincing.
“Upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume,” the DOI says. “Detectives found two additional insurance claims with two different insurance companies, for the suspects with the same date of loss and at the same location. Each of those claims involved two different vehicles, a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350, and the suspects again appeared to use a bear costume to make it appear that a bear also entered and damaged those vehicles. They provided the video footage to the other insurance companies as well to substantiate their claims.”
The DOI says a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reviewed the three videos, and that person was also disinclined to believe the suspects’ wild story. Upon searching one of the suspect’s home, authorities found the bear costume.
Watch a local news segment about the bear costume insurance fraud fiasco here:
