Insurers say bear that damaged luxury cars was actually a person in a costume

LOS ANGELES — In California, a large proportion of bears have broken into cars. But bears caught on camera entering luxury cars tipped off insurers that something wasn’t quite right.

In what’s being called “Operation Bear Claw,” the California Insurance Department said four Los Angeles residents were arrested Wednesday, accused of defrauding three insurance companies of nearly $142,000 by claiming a bear caused damage to their vehicles.

The group is accused of providing video footage from the San Bernardino Mountains of a “bear” moving in a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes to insurance companies in January as part of their claims, the department said. Photos from the insurance department show scratches on the seats and doors.

The company that viewed the video of the Rolls-Royce suspected that it was not a bear inside, but someone in a bear costume.

Detectives found two additional claims and with two different insurance companies for the four with the same date of loss and in the same location. A similar video was taken of the “bear” in the Mercedes vehicles.

It was not immediately known whether the four arrested had lawyers.

The department had a California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist review the three videos, who concluded it was “clearly a human in a bear suit,” the insurance department said.

After executing a search warrant, detectives found the bear costume in the suspects’ home, the department said.

Bears enter homes or trash cans in search of food have become a problem in California – of Lake Tahoe in the Sierra to the foothills of Los Angeles, where some raid refrigerators and take a dip in the backyard swimming pools and hot tubs.