Four men have been beaten by the criminal justice system … after they dressed up in bear suits and allegedly damaged several cars in a bizarre insurance fraud scheme in Southern California, authorities said.
Ruben Tamrazian, Ararat Chirkinyan, Gap Muradkhanyan and: Alfia Zuckerman were arrested Wednesday on insurance fraud and conspiracy charges, but investigators did not know what the furry animal was wearing, according to the California Department of Insurance.
The Los Angeles area suspects are accused of scratching and tearing into their 3 vehicles and filing false claims with insurance companies for a total of $141,839 in damages.
On January 28, 2024, they allegedly filed an insurance claim stating that the bear got into a 2010 Rolls-Royce and tore it apart, providing video evidence to investigators.
But when investigators scrutinized the footage, they were able to tell that the bear wasn’t real and was actually a man in a furry outfit.
The alleged fraudsters committed the same crimes twice more using two different vehicles, a 2015 Mercedes and a 2022 Mercedes, according to the insurance department.
Investigators went so far as to have a biologist view 3 videos of the bear and an expert determined it was a human in an animal suit.They also obtained a search warrant and found a bear costume on one of the suspects.
Gotta give them points for creativity.
