Palm Beach Psychic Scammers Arrested in New York City

In the world of psychic scammers — fake mystics and fortune tellers who use New Agey mystical babble and a variety of old school tricks to con money from vulnerable victims — there is a strong pipeline connecting New York City to South Florida. Often, as we have documented in previous stories, scammers work both regions, fleeing to one when the law enforcement gets wise in the other. The connection was recently borne out once again when a former South Florida psychic and her husband — Priscilla Kelly Delmaro and Bobby Evans — were arrested last week in Manhattan for a psychic scam . . . four years after facing criminal charges in Palm Beach County for the same hijinks. 

In both cases, Delmaro was taken down by Bob Nygaard, the South Florida private investigator who specializes in psychic scammers. According to the investigator, if Delmaro hadn't gotten off easy in 2011 in Palm Beach County, the latest New York victim might have been spared a painful and costly experience. 

"What really bothers me about this current case in NYC is that quite possibly this young man might never have been defrauded had the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office handled the prosecution of Priscilla Kelly Delmaro legally and properly back in 2011," the private investigator tells New Times.

Back in 2011, Delmaro was charged with grand theft after allegedly scamming $30,000 from a Palm Beach County woman. The psychic reportedly used the same tricks common in the trade — slow psychological pressure and subtle threats wielded against emotionally fragile person, backed up with sleight of hand scare tactics — to rope in her victim, who eventually coughed up more than $30,000 to the mystic. 

After realizing she'd been scammed, the female victim hired Nygaard, who worked with the Palm Beach Sheriff Office to bring criminal charges against the psychic. As reported below:



However Delmaro skirted real jail time for the grand theft charge after entering into a plea agreement with the Palm Beach State Attorney's Office — a deal she wasn't legally entitled too, Nygaard contends, due to the level of her alleged offense. Nonetheless, the psychic got the deal, even though she only paid back her victim $2,500. 

Fast forward to New York City in 2013: here, Delmaro again sunk her hooks into a target, this time allegedly a Brooklyn man in his 30s. Between August 2013 and April 2015, the psychic allegedly leveraged the emotional turmoil in the (unidentified) man's life to fleece him out of $718,000. 

According to Nygaard, it started when Delmaro promised she could perform supernatural "work" to clear out the negativity and evil spirits that had collected on the victim and an ex-love interest. When the ex-love interest died suddenly, the victim fell even more under the psychic's power. 

"Delmaro convinced the victim, while he was in a very vulnerable state, that although his ex love interest had died, she (Delmaro) could 'fix the problem' by reincarnating the victim’s ex-love interest in the body of another woman who would be the same age and have the same name as his ex love interest previously had," Nygaard says. The psychic even convinced the victim to love to LA, where he would meet the reincarnated lover. 

As the alleged scam played out, Delmaro allegedly conned a number of luxury items out of the victim, including "a rose gold colored Rolex watch valued at $30,000, which Delmaro claimed she needed to use temporarily to go back in time to “cleanse” the victim for every year of his life before returning it to him," Nygaard explains. Also, a "Tiffany’s diamond engagement ring valued at approximately $40,000 which Delmaro claimed she needed to take to her alleged 'church' and 'cleanse' before returning it to the victim so that he could give it to his reincarnated love interest when he met her." 

The items were never returned. Eventually, when the victim realized he'd been had, he contacted Nygaard, who worked with the NYPD’s Midtown South Detective Squad to build a case against both Delmaro and Evans. Last week, the private detective tailed the couple to a swanky midtown Manhattan steakhouse. He alerted the NYPD to the couple's location, and they were taken into custody. Nygaard snapped photos of the arrests. 

New York City court records say Delmaro and Evans both face 1st degree felony grand larceny charges; both Delmaro and Evans are being held on $200,000 and $100,000 bail, respectively. They have a court appearance scheduled today.