A love-struck man paid over $700,000 to a fraudulent psychic who promised to reunite him with his deceased lover by buying a time machine and building a bridge of gold to help fight the evil that was separating the kindred spirits.
For 20 months, the Los Angeles Times reports, a desperate and naive Niall Rice paid Priscilla Kelly Delmaro hundreds of thousands of dollars–and continued to pay her even after finding out that his love Michelle–a woman who no longer reciprocated Rice’s affections–had died in 2014.
According to the Times, Delmaro reportedly told Rice that one of the women he was dating was a reincarnation of his lost love.
It was only after a final hefty payout of $140,000 to the now “broke and homeless” Delmaro, the Times reports, that Rice began having doubts and hired a private investigator, Bob Nygaard, who is an expert in tracking down fortune tellers and psychics accused of fraud.
Delmaro was arrested on May 28 this year when Nygaard tracked her to the popular Beverly Hills steakhouse Mastro’s after receiving a tip.
Priscilla Kelly Delmaro and Bobby Evans arrested by NYPD after I tracked them to Mastro’s based on a tip from a C.I. pic.twitter.com/l1of29OfGT
— Bob Nygaard (@buncopi) May 28, 2015
According to the Times, Delmaro pleaded guilty of grand larceny in the fourth degree on Tuesday–a felony that carries no minimum jail term.
“It’s not a crime to be gullible, but it’s a crime to steal from a gullible person,” Nygaard told the Times.
Delmaro and Rice had also briefly dated, apparently. The Daily Mail reports that Rice also used another psychic in 2013, to whom he paid $150,000–including a diamond ring from Tiffany’s and $30,000 for a Rolex watch to cleanse him of his sins. The psychic reportedly never gave Nygaard the ring back.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz and on Facebook.
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