Four people have been arrested in a resort town in San Bernardino County, California, on charges that they tried to pull off a wacky insurance fraud scheme. The individuals were paid more than $140,000 after a bear broke into their luxury cars and scratched up the interiors.
The suspects even provide grainy security camera footage from their homes of the attack on their vehicles. Something about the video didn’t quite sit well with insurance investigators, so they took a closer look at it.
They noticed that the bear didn’t seem to have much trouble opening the unlocked luxury car doors. That’s a bit odd since bears don’t have opposable thumbs. The scratches on the leather seats were also made by a six-toed bear, which is unusual. Normal bears only have five claws.
The insurance investigators finally called in a state biologist to check out the videos. Sure enough, it was a guy in a mediocre bear suit flopping around inside the cars in the grainy video. The suit had a lot of slack in it because it didn’t fit the guy very well.
The suspect in the bear suit also used a pair of “chef’s claws” to make the scratches on the seats—a tool used to make pulled pork. That explained the six toes on the “bear.”
The news anchors reporting on the story were unable to keep from laughing at the absurdity of the scheme. Check it out:
