California officials arrested four people over an alleged insurance scam involving a very fake bear attacking luxury vehicles in the state this week. The crew is accused of attacking three cars in order to cash in the insurance checks.
State Insurance Department officials arrested four people in Southern California after they claimed that a bear trashed their 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost and two cars from Mercedes-Benz. They submitted video of the attack to insurers, but instead of showing a grizzly bearing down on the luxury cars, it instead showed a man in a bear suit frantically attacking the car. From Politico:
Insurance Department detectives reviewed the footage, which showed a large, furry creature entering the vehicles and causing scratches and other interior damages, and concluded “it was actually a person in a bear costume.” The detectives nicknamed their investigation “Operation Bear Claw.”
“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,” the Insurance Department said in a release.
The California Department of Insurance posted the video of the phony attack provided by the suspects and I’m pleased to say it’s as ridiculous as you’re expecting. In it, the man in the suit can be seen thrashing around on the front seat of the cars, making no attempt behave remotely bear-like.
Upon inspection of the suspects’ homes, officers found further evidence the attacks were the result of a person in a bear suit rather than an actual bear. Inside one house, they found a life-size bear outfit and a pair of fake claws that are often used for pulling pork and other delicious shredded meats.
Presumably they kept the costume to carry out more fake bear attacks, or perhaps they never expected law enforcement would be brave enough to check their property after three bear attacks at the same address.
The person in the bear suit used the meat claws to attack the 14-year-old Ghost as well as a Mercedes G63 AMG from 2015 and a 2022 Mercedes E350, adds NBC News. The scam reportedly cost insurers $141,839 and fraud charges have now been pressed against the four suspects to try and recoup some of those costs.
While there are bears in California, they don’t carry around meat pulling device with which to scratch the interiors of luxury cars. Instead, the state is home to a population of between 25,000 and 35,000 black bears, which can grow to up to seven feet tall when standing upright. If one of those attacked your car, the damage would probably be much more severe.
All of this follows a real moose that snuck into a garage and trashed a classic BMW last weekend. It really is wild out there.
