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Criminals can get very creative when it comes to figuring out ways to land a sizeable payday without having to put in the work they’d normally need to do to land the same amount of cash. However, that plotting can also lead to some fairly hare-brained schemes, including one involving a bear suit and some metal meat shredders that led to three people earning some jail time in California.
Bears are known for causing their fair share of issues in California, as the state that features one of those animals on its flag spawns plenty of news stories concerning the problems they manage to cause on a pretty regular basis.
In the past year alone, we’ve been treated to incidents where bears in The Golden State invaded a family’s kitchen in the middle of the night, popped up in the background of a news broadcast concerning an attack it seemingly perpetrated, and caused a months-long nightmare for one resident after posting up in the crawl space under his home.
As a result, it would not necessarily be shocking to learn a bear had managed to cause tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage after ransacking a luxury vehicle. However, it would be strange if that happened three times in the same town on the same day, and some people who pushed their luck have been hit with a jail sentence as a result.
Three scammers were sentenced to 180 days in jail for using a bear suit to perpetrate insurance fraud in California
In 2024, an insurance company received a video that purportedly showed a bear ripping up the exterior of a 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost in Lake Arrowhead, California on January 28th of that year.
That just so happened to be the same day listed on claims that were filed with two other insurance companies that were told a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350 had been damaged in the same manner, and the video in question was submitted to the state’s Department of Insurance due to concerns over its authenticity.
The agency launched what was dubbed “Operation Bear Claw” after consulting with a Fish and Wildlife official who looked at the footage and determined the culprit was “clearly a human in a bear suit.” They ultimately obtained a search warrant that led to the discovery of a bear suit and metal claws that are designed to shred meat, which just so happened to match the “claw” marks in the damaged vehicles.
California Department of Insurance
Four people were ultimately charged for attempting to defraud the insurance companies out of a grand total of $141,839, and according to CBS News, three of them have learned their fate after pleading no contest to the felony.
The outlet reports Alfiya Zuckerman, Ruben Tamrazian, and Vahe Muradkhanyan were each sentenced to 180 days in jail (which they will serve out on weekends) along with two years of probation. The first two were additionally ordered to fork over $108,000 in restitution, and the third may also be forced to pay as-of-yet undetermined compensation.
There is also a fourth suspect, Ararat Chirkinian, whose case is still unfolding and is scheduled to appear in court in September.