Three people in California arrested for dressing up as bears to commit insurance fraud

Never underestimate the thoroughness of an insurance investigation. Three acquaintances in California have been running a Scooby Doo–esque racket where they dress up as wild animals, destroy their luxury cars, and then finally make an insurance claim.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is still prosecuting this crime, but the preliminary evidence suggests that it may be an open-and-shut case of yet another attempt at insurance fraud. The scheme involved Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, Ruben Tamrazian, 26, and Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, claiming that a bear entered their luxury vehicles and destroyed these insured properties.

At first, the District Attorney was informed of such an attack befalling a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost and destroying its interior. The California Department of Insurance was then able to tie that claim to other, different claims made to different insurance companies, this time involving a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350.

Authorities determined it was extremely unlikely that there’s a bear out there with the taste of Jeremy Clarkson who just goes around doing impromptu, messy reviews, so they decided to look into things. It didn’t take long before they uncovered everything either. While it wasn’t exactly as dramatic as the end of a Scooby Doo episode, mask and all, it was about as close as you can reasonably get without a talking dog on payroll. We’ll just let the CDI explain.

Bear with them

The CDI wrote in their press release: “To further verify the deception, a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reviewed the footage and concluded the animal shown was clearly a human in a bear suit. Detectives later executed a search warrant and recovered the costume from the suspects’ home.”

They ended up laying the bear costume used in the attack on one of the suspect’s house floors. Arrests and restitution followed to reimburse the insurance companies’ losses. Zuckerman was ordered to pay $55,360, and Tamrazian paid $52,268. Muradkhanyan’s figure is still being calculated — and all three were sentenced to 180 days behind bars. A fourth suspect, Ararat Chirkinian, 39, is currently being investigated for similar bear attacks.

The case is aptly called Operation Bear Claw by insiders at the District Attorney’s office, and it’s believed that the idea was first concocted near Lake Arrowhead, which is where all the supposed bear attacks also happened. The CDI proudly said that no scheme is ever too outrageous for them to investigate.

The economy is bad, sure, but this is taking things a little too far. Especially considering three of the four suspects came from Glendale, and all had similar stories about a wandering bear that bumbled into cars and ripped the dashboard. It all reads like the kind of idea someone comes up with in high school, before their prefrontal cortex fully develops.

When you’re an adult, you should know that not only do insurance companies investigate all claims, but they also involve professional prosecutors and, if need be, California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists. Next time, hopefully, they all just sell the luxury car.