- They really should’ve started a bear costume business instead.
If you live in bear country, you should secure both your trash and your car. After all, it’s nothing unusual for a bear to break into your vehicle and eat the interior.
That’s what seemingly happened to four men in California. While vacationing in Lake Arrowhead, all of their vehicles got ransacked by a supposed bear.
Each car had claw marks on its interior panels and seats, for which the men filed insurance claims. To support their claims, they submitted videos of the attack.
How convenient that they all happened to have active security cameras pointed at their car when the bear showed up.
Something about the videos seemed off to the insurance agents, though. Closer scrutiny, followed by an official investigation and house search, revealed that the damage wasn’t caused by a bear.
Instead, the creature caught on camera was one of the men donning a homemade bear suit — complete with metal claws.
Now, the foursome has been arrested for insurance fraud. That said, you can’t blame them for not putting effort into their scam.
Caught on Camera
The four men arrested for the scam are Ruben Tamzarian, 26; Ararat Chirkinian, 39; and Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, of Glendale, and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, of Valley Village. Their bear saga got started on January 8, 2024.
On the day, one of them submitted an insurance claim, stating that a bear had entered and caused damage to his 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost. With the claim, he submitted a security camera video to the insurance company as supporting evidence.
The video (made public by the California Department of Insurance) indeed shows… Something entering the car. Due to the low light and grainy footage, it’s hard to say exactly what it is, but some sort of furry being is certainly rummaging through the car’s interior.
Your average Joe would probably figure it is indeed a bear, shrug, and pay out the insurance. But as you probably know, insurance agents aren’t your average Joes.
They’re trained to look for anything and everything that might be off with a claim. And they certainly noticed that this was one strange bear.
One Bizarre Bear
The first thing that set off insurance agents’ alarm bells was the way the bear in the video moves. And indeed, although we’re not wildlife experts of any kind, this bear crawls around inside the car in a very weird way.
What’s more, it turned out that this wasn’t a single incident. The ensuing investigation discovered two similar claims filed with other insurance companies.
Those claims also alleged that a bear had broken into and damaged a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350. Additionally, both claims were also filed on January 8 in Lake Arrowhead and came with security camera footage.
The bears in those videos also moved in the same remarkable bizarre fashion. Still, it could’ve been the same bear with bad rheumatism or something going around wrecking cars on that night.
To verify their suspicions, the Department of Insurance sought a professional opinion. They asked a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to check the bear attack videos.
The expert’s opinion came quickly. The thing in the videos was absolutely not a bear but some guy in a bear costume.
The Bear Suit
Following the expert’s review, the Department of Insurance executed a search warrant in the four suspects’ homes. And what do you know — they found a bear suit.
The costume consisted of a bear head and a furry coat, gloves, and shoes. To make the damage seem more authentic, the four fraudsters had fashioned metallic claws out of what seem to be barbecue meat shredders.
Well, that’s the end of that story. Tamzarian, Chirkinian, Muradkhanyan, and Zuckerman were all arrested and are awaiting their trial.
In total, they defrauded their insurance companies out of $141,839. Under California law, the four could be facing five years in jail, in addition to a fine that’s double the defrauded amount.
Perhaps they can raise the funds by selling homemade bear costumes. We’re just saying, they have talent.