Suspects allegedly wore bear suit to damage cars, defraud insurance agencies, officials say

Four people were arrested Wednesday in connection with insurance fraud when they claimed a bear damaged their car, but it was really a person in a bear costume, the California Department of Insurance said.

Ruben Tamrazian, 26, of Glendale; Ararat Chirkinian, 39, of Glendale; Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, of Glendale; and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, of Valley Village, were charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy, the department said.

The suspects filed a claim with their insurance company, saying a bear got into their car, a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost, at Lake Arrowhead on Jan. 28, 2024, and damaged the inside with scratches. The insurance department said the suspects provided a video to the company, which showed the "bear" in the car.

An investigation into the claim took a closer look at the video and found the "bear" was actually a person in a bear costume, the insurance department said. Investigators then took the video to biologists with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to also look at the video. The biologists said, "it was clearly a human in a bear suit."

The insurance department said investigators also found two other claims with two different insurance companies under the suspects' names for the same date and location that involve two different cars, a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350.

Those claims also had videos of a "bear" damaging the two cars. The insurance department said those videos also appeared to be a person in a bear costume scratching up the inside of the cars.

The suspects defrauded the insurance companies $141,839, the insurance department said.