4 individuals in Southern California allegedly tried insurance coverage fraud once they conspired collectively and submitted a number of insurance coverage claims after an individual in a bear costume faked attacks on their automobiles, together with a Rolls Royce. The California Department of Insurance (DOI) says authorities have arrested 4 suspects and there may be an arrest warrant out for a fifth particular person. The DOI is asking it “Operation Bear Claw.”
“The suspects claimed on January 28, 2024 in Lake Arrowhead a bear entered their 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost and prompted inside injury to the automobile,” says the DOI in a press launch. “They supplied video footage to their insurance coverage firm, which confirmed the alleged bear within the automobile.”
Nevertheless, the video and the “injury” weren’t too convincing.
“Upon additional scrutiny of the video, the investigation decided the bear was really an individual in a bear costume,” the DOI says. “Detectives discovered two further insurance coverage claims with two totally different insurance coverage firms, for the suspects with the identical date of loss and on the identical location. Every of these claims concerned two totally different automobiles, a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350, and the suspects once more appeared to make use of a bear costume to make it seem {that a} bear additionally entered and broken these automobiles. They supplied the video footage to the opposite insurance coverage firms as effectively to substantiate their claims.”
The DOI says a biologist from the California Division of Fish and Wildlife reviewed the three movies, and that particular person was additionally disinclined to imagine the suspects’ wild story. Upon looking out one of many suspect’s residence, authorities discovered the bear costume.
Watch an area information section concerning the bear costume insurance coverage fraud fiasco right here: