Humans Who Used a Bear Suit to Defraud Car Insurers Are Sentenced to Jail; The New York Times. April 18, 2026

Hannah Ziegler , The New York Times; Humans Who Used a Bear Suit to Defraud Car Insurers Are Sentenced to Jail

"Three Southern California residents were sentenced to jail after masterminding a scheme in which they staged fake bear attacks on their luxury cars, then collected more than $141,000 in insurance payouts, officials said on Thursday.

To carry out the attacks, the residents had a person in a bear suit climb into the cars and use claw-like kitchen utensils to leave scratch marks, the California Department of Insurance said.

The Los Angeles County residents then filed claims to defraud three different insurance companies, the department said.

Two of the defendants — Ruben Tamrazian, 26, and Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, both of Glendale, Calif. — were sentenced to 180 days in jail, or about six months, and ordered to pay more than $50,000 each in restitution, the department said in a news release...

A biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife also reviewed video footage of the bear’s activities and determined that the animal was “clearly a human in a bear suit,” the California Department of Insurance said."