Man caught harassing, extorting Seattle fortune teller

Time behind bars could be in the cards for a Western Washington man accused of harassing and extorting a Seattle psychic.

Seattle Police say an International District psychic first called police in December, 2013, after receiving a series of troubling phone calls. Following several hangups, an angry man told the woman he would send someone to break all the windows in her shop unless she paid him off, according to the police report.

The woman called police, but they couldn’t get any information about the suspect because he called from a blocked number.

The woman didn’t hear from the man again until last Friday, when he called the woman and left several angry voicemails and threatened to kill her.

The woman – who identified herself as Romani, the preferred term for “gypsies” – recognized the suspect’s voice from the previous calls. This time, his phone number appeared on the victim’s caller ID.

The woman provided the phone number to a Seattle police officer, who reached the man at his home in Battle Ground, WA.

The man, who has a history of bullying and threatening Romani, told the officer he had an intense dislike for Romani.

The officer warned him to stop making harassing calls, while others helped the frightened woman close her shop early and walked her to her car. They also provided her with information about obtaining an anti-harassment order against the suspect.

Police have referred the case to prosecutors for possible charges of telephone harassment.