Los Angeles County Quartet Charged with Staging Faux Bear Attacks on Luxury Cars for Insurance Fraud

In an incident that sounds like a plot straight out of a comedy, four individuals from Los Angeles County have found themselves in hot water after their bear-y deceptive stunt was uncovered. According to

KTLA

, the group, which involved Ruben Tamrazian, 26, Ararat Chirkinian, 39, Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, all from Glendale, and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, of Valley Village, staged bear attacks on luxury vehicles to file fraudulent insurance claims totaling over $141,000.

While initial insurance claims described bear-induced havoc on a 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost and two Mercedes vehicles, investigators detected a scheme with the help of a biologist who confirmed, as per the

CBS News Los Angeles

report, that a bear was indeed not behind the damages. A statement from the CDI dubbed the investigation “Operation Bear Claw” and noted the appearance of a bear costume when detectives executed a search warrant at one of the suspect’s homes.

The fraud began unraveling after insurance companies received claims about a bear damaging the interiors of cars in the mountain community of Lake Arrowhead. Videos provided by the claimants purported to show the animal’s destruction, but a closer look revealed inconsistencies hinting at a human masquerade, triggering the investigation by the California Department of Insurance. According to findings released by the

California Department of Insurance

, the biologist’s review was instrumental in confirming the suspicions of fraud.

The crafting of the scheme involved well-staged videos with different luxury cars—all positioned outside of the same residence—and claimed to present similar bear-inflicted damages. The peculiar nature of the claims and the shared location raised red flags for the insurance providers. In what was a bust for the books, the bear was a person dressed in a realistic bear costume, investigators said. Together with the Glendale Police Department and the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Insurance also seized handheld claws believed to be used in inflicting the supposed bear damages.

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