A bizarre insurance scam was exposed as ‘clearly a human in a bear suit’ damaging luxury cars
•Three people in California have been sentenced for insurance fraud in a bizarre scam that involved someone dressed in a bear costume damaging luxury cars.
•The California Insurance Department said the three used a person in a bear suit to stage fake attacks inside a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes in 2024, then submitted fraudulent claims seeking...
•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,...
هذا الخبر من فورتشن العربية. خبر يقدم أدوات ذكاء اصطناعي للتلخيص والترجمة والاستماع.
المصدر: فورتشن العربية | Source: فورتشن العربيةThree people in California have been sentenced for insurance fraud in a bizarre scam that involved someone dressed in a bear costume damaging luxury cars.
The California Insurance Department said the three used a person in a bear suit to 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 homes or trash cans in search of food have become a problem in California from Lake Tahoe in the Sierra down to the foothill suburbs of Los Angeles, where some have been known to raid refrigerators and take dips in backyard pools and hot tubs.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
ملاحظة تحريرية | Editorial Note: نُشر هذا المقال في الأصل بواسطة فورتشن العربية. خبر (Khabr) هي منصة إعلامية أردنية مرخّصة تعمل بالذكاء الاصطناعي. نضيف قيمة تحريرية من خلال: تحليل ذكي للأخبار، ملخصات تلقائية، رواية صوتية بالذكاء الاصطناعي، ترجمة متعددة اللغات، وتدقيق الحقائق. هدفنا جعل الأخبار أكثر وضوحاً وسهولةً للقارئ العربي.
This article was originally published by فورتشن العربية. Khabr is a licensed Jordanian AI-powered news platform (Registration #82086). We add editorial value through: AI-powered news analysis, automated summaries, AI audio narration, multi-language translation (Arabic, English, French, Turkish), and AI fact-checking. Our mission is to make news more accessible and understandable for Arabic-speaking audiences worldwide.





