LOS ANGELES - Four people who allegedly dressed as bears and damaged their own luxury cars in a bid to defraud insurance companies were arrested in the US state of California on Wednesday. Suspicions were aroused when a claim was made for ripped seats and damaged doors on a luxury Rolls-Royce Ghost, an exclusive vehicle worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Claimants said a bear had got into the car when it was parked in Lake Arrowhead, a mountain spot outside Los Angeles, wreaking havoc on its interior.
To back up their claim, they provided photos of the damage as well as footage from a security camera, which they said showed the animal inside the vehicle. But the company smelled a rat and contacted insurance fraud detectives. "Upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume," said a release from the California Department of Insurance.
Investigators then combed through records and found two other claims against different insurance companies alleging bear damage to different vehicles -- a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350 -- at the same spot. Both claims had also been accompanied by video footage of the same "bear" rampaging around the vehicles. "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," Wednesday's st.
