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Creativity tends to come in handy if you make the decision to engage in criminal activities, as having an active imagination can be the key to outfoxing law enforcement. However, a group of alleged fraudsters in California was unable to fool authorities with an ill-conceived insurance scam involving a bear suit.
Living in bear country comes with plenty of potential downsides when you consider the wild animals tend to have a very poor grasp on the concepts of trespassing, personal property, and common courtesy as a whole. They usually don’t pose much of a threat to people, but it’s not particularly rare for them to rummage through trash cans and invade vehicles and homes in search of an easy meal.
It seemed like a bear was responsible for a string of car invasions that unfolded in the San Bernadino Mountains in California earlier this year, as an insurance company received a video that appeared to show an animal that had managed to infiltrate a 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost that was parked outside a home in the town of Lake Arrowhead on January 28th.
According to NBC News, the company contacted the California Department of Insurance after reviewing the footage and examining the claw marks that were left on the upholstery and interior before determining something was amiss.
Those suspicions were only deepened when two other insurance companies received claims concerning similar damage inflicted upon a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350 in the same town on the same date, and the agency’s fraud division launched what was dubbed “Operation Bear Claw” after coming to the conclusion the culprit was actually just a person in a bear costume.
Investigators consulted with a biologist employed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife who reviewed the videos and determined the culprit was “clearly a human in a bear suit.” They subsequently obtained a search warrant that led to the discovery of a bear suit and a pair of metal claws marketed as meat shredders in the home of a suspect.
California Department of Insurance
Four people were ultimately arrested earlier this week and charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy after attempting to claim a total of $141,839 from the companies in question.