The owner of a Rolls-Royce Ghost claimed that a bear had destroyed the hugely expensive car. But the surveillance video aroused the insurance company's skepticism.
A bjorn, a Rolls-Royce and an insurance company are the ingredients of an unusual fraud case that recently resulted in a slew of charges in Southern California.
A total of four people were arrested on Wednesday this week and charged with having staged damage to their cars. All this in order to collect the amount that the cars are insured for.
The case started rolling when a group of men "each" reported suspiciously similar damage to their cars.
The owners want compensation for the Rolls-Royce Ghost from 2010, a Mercedes G63 AMG from 2015 and a Mercedes E350 from 2022. As proof of the damage, they presented a surveillance video that allegedly shows a wild bear entering the cars and tearing apart the interior .
However, the insurance companies became suspicious when they noticed similarities in the claims – same date, same place and the same video of an "angry bear".
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The suspicion led to an investigation, which the companies dubbed "Operation Bjorneklo". The effort revealed that it was not a bear at all that had run amok in the cars.
"On closer examination of the video, the investigation was able to establish that it was actually a person in a bear suit", according to the insurance companies' investigation.
A Californian biologist has already been involved in the case. And according to the biologist, there is no doubt that it is fraud.
– What is clearly a human in a bear costume must have been stated by the biologist in connection with the investigation.
This is written by the local media ABC7 .
When the authorities found out about the case, search warrants were issued. And in the suspect's home, the authorities found, among other things, a brown bear suit with matching paws and metal tools.
The fraud, which took place in Lake Arrowhead, a forest area near Los Angeles, cost the insurance companies the equivalent of 975,000 Danish kroner. Now the four men are all charged with fraud.
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