Four people were arrested Wednesday in connection with insurance fraud after they claimed their car was damaged by a bear, but it was actually a person dressed 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; Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, of Valley Village, was charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy, the department said.

The suspects filed a lawsuit against the insurance company, saying that a bear got into a 2010 model Rolls-Royce Ghost vehicle in Lake Arrowhead on January 28, 2024 and damaged the interior of the vehicle by scratching it. The insurance department said the suspects provided the company with a video showing the “bear” in the car.

The insurance department said its investigation into the claim determined that a closer look at the video determined that the “bear” was actually a person wearing a bear costume. Investigators then took the video to biologists at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to look at the video. “It was clearly a human in a bear costume,” biologists said.

Investigators also found two other claims from two different insurance companies under the suspects’ names for the same date and location involving two different cars, a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350, the insurance department said.

These allegations also included videos of a “bear” damaging two vehicles. The insurance department said that in these videos, a person dressed in a bear costume was also seen scratching the inside of cars.

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