How Fake Attacks Cost Insurers USD 140K—And led to 4 Arrests! 

United States: In January, a video was submitted as part of an insurance claim showing a brown bear ransacking a Rolls-Royce parked in a driveway in Southern California. The bear caused significant damage to the luxury car. Other similar videos of bears damaging expensive cars were also sent to two more insurance companies. As a result, the three companies paid out more than USD 140,000 to cover the damages caused by the bears. 

However, the footage did not look quite real and one of the companies informed insurance authorities about video and images of claw marks on the upholstery. On Wednesday after completing an investigation it named Operation Bear Claw, the department concluded that the bear was not actually a bear. 

As reported by the Reuters, “though the initial ‘reliable’ information said it was a bear, after close scrutiny of the video the investigation established that it was an individual in a bear costume,” the department said in a statement. Scratch marks inside the vehicles were made with a kitchen utensil that looked like a claw used in tearing through meat, it said. 

The California Department of Insurance on Wednesday stated that four residents of the Los Angeles County were arrested. Ruben Tamrazian aged 26; Ararat Chirkinian, aged 39; Vahe Muradkhanyan, aged 32, all from Glendale, California; and Alfiya Zuckerman, aged 39, of Los Angeles each stand accused of insurance fraud and conspiracy according to the department. 

In an email statement sent to our news desk Thursday, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino District Attorney’s Office indicated that the case was under consideration and after determination to file the case, trial dates would be arranged. There was no indication of whether or not the defendants had retained counsel. 

The three men who were arrested were still in custody on Thursday, said the authorities The sheriff’s office of the San Bernardino County said that Ms. Zuckerman had been released after posting a bond of 50 thousand dollars. 

In its news release, the California Department of Insurance said, ‘the first insurance company ‘suspected fraud,’ after it processed a claim pertaining to a bear rummaging through a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost on January 28, this year in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., an area known for its resort, some 80 linear miles northeast of Los Angeles.