Swindle ‘Cures’ Victim of $58,000 in Life Savings

A Northridge man who kept his life savings of $58,000 stuffed in a mattress lost it all to a fortuneteller who rubbed him with egg yolks and water to cure his “restlessness,” Los Angeles police said Tuesday.

“It’s sad,” Detective Patrick Riley said of the loss by 29-year-old German Vargas. “He worked two jobs for 12 years to get that money. He went to a cook from a dishwasher. He lost it all.”

Riley said a felony theft warrant has been issued for Catherine Mitchell, 53, who he said is a Gypsy who has operated as a fortuneteller in the Los Angeles area for at least seven years. Mitchell set up shop in Van Nuys several months ago, Riley said, and circulated Spanish-language flyers billing herself as “Consejera Mercedez.” Consejera, in Spanish, means adviser.

But she hasn’t been seen since July, when she took Vargas’ money, telling him it had to be “cleansed” because it was evil and was preventing him from sleeping, the detective said.

Mitchell also took $100 from each of Vargas’ two roommates, sisters Eldemire and Jovita Morfin, promising that the same yolk and water treatment would cure them of acne and bad luck, Riley said.

“They didn’t know any better,” he said.

Many victims of such swindles are foreign-born and poorly educated, but others, including persons suffering from terminal diseases, often become desperate enough to fall for similar scams, Riley said.

When Vargas and his two roommates visited Mitchell’s apartment in the 16100 block of Vanowen Street in July, she sprinkled them with water, told them to pray and rubbed them with egg yolks, Riley said. Then she took Vargas’ money, sewed it in a cloth bag, wrapped it with a sheet and told them to return in a week, at which time they would be cured, he said.

When they returned, Mitchell pulled what appeared to be the same bag from a pail of water filled with flowers and gave it to Vargas, claiming it was “clean,” the detective said. When Vargas returned home and opened the bag, however, all but $781 was gone, Riley said.

He said it is not uncommon for Gypsy fortunetellers to use egg yolks as part of a treatment.