Three Los Angeles County men have been convicted of orchestrating a bizarre insurance fraud scheme that involved staging fake bear attacks on luxury cars for insurance payouts, state officials said Thursday.
Dubbed “Operation Bear Claw,” the scheme was investigated by the California Department of Insurance after suspicious claims were filed alleging that a bear had damaged high-end vehicles in the Lake Arrowhead area, north of San Bernardino.
Investigators found a group of four people, three from Glendale and one from Valley Village, had filed insurance claims alleging that a bear had destroyed their luxury vehicles. They provided video evidence and were eventually paid more than $141,000 for the damages. But investigators later found that the “bear” in the videos was actually just a person in a bear costume. All four were arrested in 2024, and three were sentenced this week, according to the Department of Insurance…