Monroe woman hoodwinked by fortune teller

No charges filed after ‘Miss Rose’ repays $40,000 Monroe - In a case of misplaced trust, a Monroe woman ended up giving a stranger named Miss Rose $9,105 in cash, $30,000 worth of jewelry and an egg. The scam began in March, according to Det. James Frankild of the Monroe Police Department, when a 41-year-old Monroe resident who was shopping in a local store was approached by a woman who identified herself as Miss Rose. ‘The evil around her’ “Miss Rose told the woman that she could sense that she had trouble in her life and that she could do a reading for her to try and rid the evil around her,” said Frankild. The woman, who said that she had personal issues in her life at the time, agreed to the proposal and gave Miss Rose $100. The reading was done on the spot. Miss Rose told the woman that evil surrounded her and that she would never be truly happy until it was removed. Miss Rose offered to do the evil removal. The woman thought that would be a good idea, so she agreed to meet with Miss Rose again to discuss how the evil could be removed. A few days later the two women met at a home in Monroe, which supposedly belonged to Miss Rose. “During that visit, Miss Rose had the woman leave a $5 bill near a candle in the house and then go to a store and purchase a dozen eggs,” said Frankild. “The woman complied. When she returned with the eggs, Miss Rose removed one from the carton, wrapped it in a paper towel and began to chant.” Miss Rose held the egg over the woman and said she could feel evil in and around her. “Then Miss Rose smashed the egg, and when she did a black substance came out, not the whites and yolk like one would expect,” said Frankild. The egg smashing apparently didn’t solve the problem of removing all the evil, though, because Miss Rose told the woman there was still a great deal of evil around her. In order to get rid of it, Miss Rose told the woman she would need to purchase a prayer box. “The prayer box would be used by Miss Rose to help her trap the evil that was inside the woman and rid her of it,” said Frankild. $1,500 prayer box, $7,500 necklace The woman complied and purchased the box for $1,500 from Miss Rose. The two women met several times in the following days to use the prayer box. The prayer box, however, wasn’t entirely successful at trapping the evil. After several sessions, Miss Rose said she could sense that there was still evil in the woman and suggested that she needed to purchase a necklace that would help keep the evil away. The woman complied and purchased a necklace for $7,500 from Miss Rose. The two women met up again a week or so later and Miss Rose did a reading. Miss Rose could still sense evil on the woman. However, Miss Rose had another thought. “She told the woman that the evil around her might be coming from her personal jewelry,” said Frankild. “She instructed the woman to bring her all of her jewelry so it could be cleansed. If the woman didn’t comply, she would never be truly happy with her life, according to Miss Rose.” The woman complied and brought Miss Rose all of her jewelry, approximately $30,000 worth. When she asked Miss Rose how long it would take to cleanse the jewelry, she was told two to three months, maybe longer. No one home Several months went by. The woman began calling Miss Rose so she could get her jewelry back, but she was never able to reach her. “Finally, the woman went to the home where she had met with Miss Rose, but the home was vacant,” said Frankild. “No one lived there any longer.” It was at this point that the woman realized she’d been scammed. She brought her story to the Monroe Police Department. “It took us a few months to identify who Miss Rose actually was,” said Frankild. “She’s a fortune teller and she moves around a great deal. She has done similar scams on people around the country. When we located her, she was living in the state of Florida.” Postscript Because the victim was embarrassed that she had fallen for the scam, Frankild said she did not want to pursue charges and possibly end up testifying in open court. Instead, a deal was worked out. Miss Rose said she had sold the jewelry, but she offered to make restitution in the amount of $40,000 - a bit more than the total amount taken from the victim, including the cost of the egg. The victim received the money this week.

People need to use common sense in situations like this or they can become victims. In this case, we were able to identify the suspect, contact her and her attorney and get restitution for the victim. But in some cases the suspect may never be found.” Monroe Village Police Det. James Frankild