Four Los Angeles-area residents were recently arrested and charged with insurance fraud after allegedly using a bear suit to make it seem like a wild animal had damaged their luxury vehicles.
“Operation Bear Claw,” as California authorities subbed this ingenious insurance fraud scheme, 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 in San Bernadino, a region famous for its large black bear population. Still, 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, and this was light brown, but its movements weren’t very bear-like either.
