Posted on 04/27/2007 9:15:59 AM PDT by kellynla
Philadelphia's fortune-tellers didn't see it coming. Suddenly they're facing a very unhappy future.
Alerted to an obscure state law banning fortune-telling "for gain or lucre," the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections is closing storefront psychics, astrologers, phrenologists and tarot-card readers who charge money for their services.
Inspectors had closed 16 shops since Tuesday, Deputy L&I Commissioner Dominic E. Verdi said yesterday.
"We were not aware it was a crime," he said, "but the Police Department came to us a few days ago and showed us where the crime code prohibits psychic readings.
"We looked into it, and it's clearly illegal. I was surprised."
Fortune-telling for profit is a third-degree misdemeanor. The law has been on the books for more than 30 years.
Verdi said that he did not know how many shops operated in the city, but that he expected inspectors to close more in the days ahead.
Inspectors are not imposing fines, and police are not making arrests, Verdi said, "but they will if these people try to return to work."
Most so-called psychics, he said, "are not little old ladies with kerchiefs on their heads" but clever con artists capable of stealing large sums - even life savings - from grieving or otherwise vulnerable people.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Fantastic news.
These pathetic con-artists and charalatans will have to seek more creative means to bilk the public. Perhaps they should run for elected office?
For five bucks at a carny it can be very amusing. Some of these people put on a good show and the cleverness of the vague “futures” is amazing.
Where I grew up it was not uncommon to include a trip to a fortune teller as part of a date. It could be funny and the topic of discussion for a week or so.
I know a woman who does a “reading” as a fundraiser- all the $$ she gets goes to some charity, and her “fortunes” are hilarious and well worth the donation.
http://www.sff.net/people/e.friesner/Conquest/cheeblemancy.html
But to take such things seriously? That’s folly.
Yet, you never see "psychics wanted" ads in the newspapers. Why not? The psychics know where the jobs are and just go there.
Yes, actually I’m all for that. But closing down businesses that the community wants to patronize, and that are not causing any problems for non-patrons (i.e. unlike drug dealers, who have plenty of customers, but also generate a lot of violent crime that hurts non-customers) doesn’t strike me as having anything to do with “broken windows”. There’s no shortage of actual broken/boarded up windows in these parts of Philly, and no shortage of drug dealing, underage prostitution, child neglect, vandalism, etc. Spending time on THOSE crimes is likely to drive the murder rate down. Closing down tarot card readers isn’t.
No, didn’t see it or hear of it............
Yep.
Actually I have seen “psychics wanted” ads, Tucson was a big call center town for a while and these psychic hot lines are just that, call centers. It’s all about following the script.
I have no sympathy for these fakirs.
Two instances:
1) A friend of my wife went to a psychic and told her she needed to sacrifice money to clean her aura, shockra or whatever. My wife went along once and pointed out how she was doing cold reading and was basically a fraud. she still spent almost 5k.
2) A friend of mine and his wife were having problems. The wife went to a psychic and she told her the stars said she should never have had children, she had two kids. When her husband got home that night, she tried to make him listen to the recording and they got into a big fight and he left with the kids to go to his parents. She then killed herself.
Now he is in jail because they’re saying he faked her suicide. Now they always ask friends if the person was the type that could do that and I would definitely say no way, he was a big pacifist. Of course if they asked my friends that, they’d probably say, “Hell yeah, we’re surprised he didn’t do it sooner”.
True story:
I was taking care of some insurance business with my agent whose business was located near a “psychic’s” shop.
A pair of younger guys come in and ask the receptionist if she knows how to contact the psychic or when she would be open for business.
The receptionist replies that she had no contact info nor did she the hours of operation.
The more sceptical of the two guys turns to the other and says with a perfectly straight face, “Maybe we should go find another fortune teller. This one’s not too good, she didn’t know we were coming.”
The going to ban the Horoscope from appearing in the Inquirer?
Psychics should have seen this one coming!
What I experienced in those three sessions I can not explain.
In a darkened small bedroom with 9 people present, the Lords Prayer and the 23 Psalm was recited. The woman talked to her departed husband about business matters etc.
I saw physical stuff happening I can’t explain from an engineering point of view. He described a friend who had died in a PBY plane crash a few years before, who was standing beside me as a spirit. There was much more to this.
I was left with the thought that, He had no motive to do this as no money or anything else was involved. That maybe there is something to it, and there is an existence after death(I am in my third life per my spirit teacher).
According to this medium, when you die, other spirits you know meet you and help with the transistion.
Most so-called psychics, he said, “are not little old ladies with kerchiefs on their heads” but clever con artists capable of stealing large sums - even life savings - from grieving or otherwise vulnerable people.
Of course they shut them down..
That job reserved for Crooked Bankers, Lawyers, Judges, and Social Service Agencies.
Lol
Strike the word
“Crooked”
That job reserved for Bankers, Lawyers, Judges, and Social Service Agencies.
...”clever con artists capable of stealing large sums - even life savings - from grieving or otherwise vulnerable people.”
Thats better.
W
A true psychic doesnt need a job, they just go to the horse track once a month and win the daily double.
Consider that these places of business, couldn’t (illegally) operate without a license. Who is the bumbling idiot in some tax payer funded position that issues a license for illegal activity? Blackbird.
A few years ago, around Christmas time in Nashville, Indiana, a store burnt down. It was just a few doors away from the local 'fortune teller'. I have a picture of the seer's sign, with the smoldering ashes of the burnt out store in the background!
>> No, didn’t see it or hear of it............ <<
Oh, there’s this monkey-paw talisman, which supposedly grants people their wishes, only in horrific ways. Some parents wish for a lot of money, and they get an insurance check when their son is horribly killed. The mother than goes to wish to get the son back, over the impassioned objections of the father. Of course, the son comes back as a rotting corpse...
Sounds like a Stephen King movie..........
“Con” stands for “confidence.” “Con” artists, by definition, do apparently selfless things to get your confidence. Then they start doing “favors” that cost you dearly.
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