Dressed up as bears to defraud insurance companies, This is the accusation made against four people, arrested and charged in Californiayou suspect of having plotted to exploit the policies on their high-end cars to the detriment of the insurer. Ruben Tamrazian, 26, Ararat Chirkinian, 39, Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, reported damage caused to the interior of luxury cars they owned by a bear. One of the insurance companies affected by the claim began an investigation into the case, which involved a settlement for a Rolls Royce Ghost worth several hundred thousand dollars.
Two elements fueled the suspicions: The insured had explained that a bear had entered the car in Lake Arrowhead, a mountainous region near Los Angeles, and had torn the seats and damaged the doors. CCTV footage and photos showing the animal in full action were also provided. But the traces of marks left by the claws of the alleged plantigrade on the leather seats are too regular and the brown bear that can be glimpsed in the security footage made available by the insured themselves belongs to a species that has been extinct in that area for almost a century.
A man dressed up in a bear costume and scratched cars to get insurance payouts
Four California residents sent insurance companies videos of a wild animal smashing their cars – a Rolls-Royce Ghost, Mercedes G63 AM and Mercedes E350. Turns out they staged the “wild beast” attack… pic.twitter.com/YeSmjPKv2l
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) November 14, 2024
The images were sent to a Department of Wildlife biologist, who certified “that it was clearly a human in a bear costume“. “We have come to the conclusion that whoever is inside this vehicle does not move like a bear, but like a human. Let’s say opening the door and entering the vehicle, for a bear, is very suspicious,” Harry Kazakian, an insurance fraud investigator, told Bfmtv.
“The Insurance investigators are trained to spot all types of fraud, including AI scams, but this is unprecedented”, he added. During the course of the investigation, detectives also discovered that two other insurance claims had been submitted to different insurance companies for two high-end Mercedes.
In each case, the damage was blamed on a bear and a video showing the alleged beast in action was submitted as evidence. A search of the suspects’ homes also allowed the disguise to be found from an animal used for fraud. Their compensation claims totaled more than $140,000.