Hey, You! Put Away That Crystal Ball

The BPD announced that on Tuesday they ordered a rogue fortune teller to stop dealing in the future. Neighbors on Marlborough Street didn't appreciate the fortune teller's fliers on their cars. No word if they were creeped out by the intense psychic energy.

She was operating a business without being properly licensed, but we didn't know that fortune-telling required a license. A Google search on fortune telling in Boston turned up selectmen minutes from Hull in which a woman applied for a fortune-telling license in 2002. There's another record of someone applying in Braintree.

Also, in Salem, where residents can earn a bit telling fortunes and performing witchcraft, you can be charged $100 if you practice without a license.

The general laws of Massachusetts state, "Whoever, by a game, device, sleight of hand, pretended fortune telling or by any trick or other means by the use of cards or other implements or instruments, fraudulently obtains from another person property of any description shall be punished as in the case of larceny of property of like value."

So be careful if you are tracing a lifeline on a palm or flipping your tarot cards because the BPD might be watching. And remember what happened to Miss Cleo, who wasn't able to see the guv'mint coming after her when she looked into her crystal ball.

Old ad of Miss Cleo, who was neither Jamaican nor a shaman. Shocker.