Brown bears claim for insurance

Four men who dressed up as brown bears to attack cars and claim it on insurance have been arrested for fraud and conspiracy.

Everybody’s heard of unusual stunts or of people going all-out to get an extra bit of cash. But it would almost seem like child’s play to see grown men dressing up as animals in order to file for insurance. Curiously, this is exactly what happened.

The peculiar case took place in California, where not only one, but four men decided to dress up as brown bears. The idea behind the fancy dress was that the grizzly team would then go on to destroy several vehicles, masking the criminal act behind an innocent “bear” attack. After further investigation, it was discovered that the suspects had submitted videos earlier of a bear damaging two Mercedes-Benz cars. However, when police carried out further searches of their homes, they were shocked to find not guns or weapons but a bear costume sprawled out in one of their houses, complete with kitchen tools mimicking a bear’s meat claws.

Four men charged with fraud of insurance after bear stunt

The four men were charged with fraud of insurance companies and conspiracy amounting to over $140,000 (£110,000) . All were in their thirties from Glendale or Valley Village in California. Southern California authorities commented dryly that the four men had obviously lacked “a bit of common sense”, especially when no brown bears have been seen in California in a century. Black bears can sometimes look brown but the costume was clearly not up to the task for fooling Police Officers or authorities and much less, when it was laid out for all to see on the floor of their homes.  Authorities added comically that if someone is going to dress up like a bear to commit insurance fraud, at least dress up like a bear that actually exists in their state.

Video submitted by hoax suspects showed a brown bear attacking cars

The video which had been submitted by the four bear lookalikes at first appeared to be a real brown bear entering a 2010 Rolls Royce car in the San Bernardino Mountains at night before it was seen obliterating the insides of the vehicle. However, according to a statement from the state Insurance Department, “upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume.”

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