Four Los Angeles-area residents were recently arrested and charged with insurance fraud after allegedly using a bear suit to make it seem like their luxury vehicles had been damaged by a wild animal.

“Operation Bear Claw,” as this ingenious insurance fraud scheme was subbed by California authorities, began in January of this year, when the four suspects claimed that a bear had entered their 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost while it was parked in Lake Arrowhead and caused extensive interior damage. The area is located in San Bernadino, a region famous for its large black bear population, but the video footage supplied to the insurer by the suspects themselves was more than a little shady. It showed a furry animal entering the back seat of the Rolls Royce and scratching it, but something didn’t add up. For one, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife says that the only bears in the state are black bears, and this was light brown, but its movements weren’t very bear-like either.

“Upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume,” police told NPR. “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.”

Investigators later found that the four suspects had filed two more insurance claims involving bear attacks on other luxury vehicles – a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350 – and they became fairly certain they were dealing with a scam. But they didn’t want to leave anything to chance and decided to obtain the ultimate evidence, the bear itself.

 

California police officers executed a search warrant at the four suspects’ home and found a bear costume complete with a furry head, paws and metal tools in the shape of claws used to produce the damage. The case is currently under review, but if found guilty, the four suspects risk spending time behind bars for defrauding companies out of nearly $142,000.