In an event that could be dubbed stranger than fiction, four California residents were arrested on charges of insurance fraud when they claimed fake bear attacks damaged their Rolls Royce.

The California Department of Insurance outlined the scam in a news release yesterday.

Ruben Tamrazian, 26, of Glendale, Ararat Chirkinian, 39, of Glendale, Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, of Glendale, and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, of Valley Village, have all been charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy.

On January 28, 2024, the suspects claimed a bear entered their 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost and caused interior damage. They provided a video to their insurance company showing the alleged bear in the vehicle.

The investigation determined the bear was a person in a bear costume.

Detectives found two additional insurance claims with two different insurance companies, for the suspects with the same date of loss and at the same location.

Each of those claims involved two different vehicles, a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350, and the suspects again appeared to use a bear costume to make it appear that a bear also entered and damaged those vehicles.

They provided video footage to the other insurance companies as well to substantiate their claims.

To further ensure it was not actually a bear in the video, the Department had a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife review the three alleged bear videos and they also opined it was clearly a human in a bear suit.

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

The insurance companies were defrauded a total of of $141,839.

Department detectives were assisted by the Glendale Police Department and the California Highway Patrol. The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting this case.

Photo credit: California Department of Insurance