LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three people in California have been sentenced for insurance fraud in a bizarrescam that involved someone dressed in a bear costumedamaging luxury cars.
The California Insurance Department said the threeused a person in a bear suitto stage fake attacks inside a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes in 2024, then submitted fraudulent claims seeking nearly $142,000 in payouts from insurance companies. The department called it “Operation Bear Claw.”
Two Los Angeles-area men and a woman pleaded no contest to felony insurance fraud and were sentenced to a weekend jail program, followed by probation, the department said in a news release Thursday. Two off them were ordered to pay over $50,000 in restitution.
A fourth person faces a court hearing in September.
The group is accused of providing several videos from the San Bernardino Mountains of a bear moving inside the vehicles to the insurance companies as part of their damage claims, the department said. Photos provided by the insurance department show what appeared to be scratches on the seats and doors.
A California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist reviewed the footage and concluded it was “clearly a human in a bear suit,” the insurance department said.
After executing a search warrant, detectives found the bear costume in the suspects’ home, the department said.
Bears breaking into homesor trash cans in search of food have become a problem in California fromLake Tahoein the Sierra down to the foothill suburbs of Los Angeles, where some have been known to raid refrigerators and take dips in backyardpools and hot tubs.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
