Four people have been arrested on suspicion of insurance fraud after claiming their car was damaged by a bear — which turned out to be someone dressed as one of the animals, officials said.

Home surveillance footage filed with an insurance company shows the alleged bear entering and damaging a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost while it was parked near Lake Arrowhead, northeast of Los Angeles, on Jan. 28, the California Department said. of Insurance (CDI).

“Further examination of the video revealed that the bear was actually a person in a bear costume,” the CDI added.

Claims for damage to two other cars – a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350 – were also filed with two different insurance companies.

These claims were also accompanied by home surveillance footage, with the CDI saying the suspects “appeared to once again use a bear costume to give the impression that a bear was also entering and damaging those vehicles.”

All three insurance claims indicated “the same date of loss” and the same location, the CDI said.

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The alleged scam cost the relevant insurance companies $141,839 (£111,788).

The department released an image of a brown furry suit found during a search of the suspects’ home. It was accompanied by metal hand tools that could be used to simulate claw marks.

The footage of the three claims shows that the incidents were filmed outside the same building, on the same evening, but at different times.

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Images released by the CDI of the inside of the vehicles appear to show small scratches on seats and doors that were meant to pass for claw marks.

Bears do live in the Lake Arrowhead area, but when researchers showed the videos to a California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, “they believed it was clearly a human in a bear suit,” CDI said.

Ruben Tamrazian, 26, Ararat Chirkinian, 39, Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, all of California, were arrested on charges of insurance fraud and conspiracy, the department added.

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