April 18 (UPI) -- Three people were sentenced this week in an insurance fraud scam that saw them wear a bear costume while damaging luxury cars in California.
Alfiya Zuckerman, Ruben Tamrazian and Vahe Muradkhanyan all pleaded no contest on Thursday to felony insurance fraud and were sentenced to 180 days in jail, while a fourth person involved in the scheme, Ararat Chirkinian, has a preliminary hearing scheduled for September.
The four were caught because they submitted video of three fake attacks on cars to three different companies, but one group of investigators noticed the "bear" in a Rolls Royce moved in ways more similar to a human, The Los Angeles Times and The Guardian reported.
"What may have looked unbelievable turned out to be exactly that," Ricardo Lara, commissioner of California's Department of Insurance, said in a press release.
"Insurance fraud is a serious crime that drives up costs for consumers, and no scheme is too outrageous for us to investigate," Lara said.
