In January, a security camera captured unnerving footage: what appeared to be a bear had forced its way into a Rolls Royce parked outside a home in the Southern California resort community of Lake Arrowhead, gouged the seats and thrashed the interior.
But a sharp-eyed auto insurer felt something was off about the furry interloper. After an investigation, the California Department of Insurance concluded that the damage wasn’t the work of a bear at all, but an attempt at insurance fraud.
“Upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume,” the Department of Insurance said in a statement Wednesday.
Four Los Angeles-area locals were arrested and charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy after the department’s investigation found three allegedly bogus insurance claims for staged bear attacks on three cars, including the 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost…