$40,000 negative energy money sponge
• Psychics & Other Frauds
Some people's gullibility is breathtaking.
Stevens, who has offices in Doylestown and Lahaska, told Margaret Cifelli she needed $50,000 to create a "sponge" that would absorb the negativity in Cifelli's life, according to an affidavit filed in court.
"This is a promise between you, me, and God to complete this sponge," Stevens allegedly told Cifelli.
Cifelli's first appointment was in April, with a woman named Tiffany, in Stevens' Lahaska office. Tiffany, whose last name was not listed in court papers, and who has not been charged, told Cifelli to drink hot lemon water, eat salad and yogurt, and add vinegar to her bath as a way to cleanse the "chakras," the affidavit said. She told her not to watch the news and to beware of other psychic readers, "as they don't all tell the truth."
Two days later, Cifelli met with Stevens, who allegedly told her to take four bags and put three $100 bills and three rolls of quarters into each.
"The money will not be called money anymore," Stevens allegedly told Cifelli. "It will now be called the sponge."
Two days later, according to police, Stevens told Cifelli "the sponge" needed $9,000 more, the affidavit said. Cifelli obliged. Four days after that, Cifelli was told to add $3,000. Two weeks later, she added $9,000. By the time Cifelli went to police at the end of May, she said she had given Stevens $40,240.
She said that when she asked Stevens for the money back, Stevens called her "rude" and told her she had given the money to churches.
Christine Schiave, Philadelphia Inquirer: Fortune-teller's future involves a date in court