Bear-Costumed Fraud: SoCal scheme pries payouts from luxury cars, trio jailed

A Southern California woman and two men in a bear costume staged “bear” attacks on a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost and two Mercedes vehicles in Lake Arrowhead to file fraudulent insurance claims. The trio submitted three claims with the same date and location, two of which were paid (totaling about $141,839) while a third was denied after investigators reviewed surveillance video and confirmed a human in the bear suit with help from a wildlife biologist. The defendants pleaded no contest and were sentenced to jail time for insurance fraud.