A self-professed psychic trolling the Upper West Side for victims managed to dupe a Manhattan woman out of more than $100,000 in cash and jewels by convincing her she needed him to ward off “evil spirits,” officials said yesterday.
Cops said David Stevens, 51, and his wife approached a total stranger at Columbus Avenue and West 86th Street on Sept. 7.
They told the woman, Karmel Canlas, they were “psychics” and said they sensed there were “evil spirits surrounding her,” authorities said.
Canlas, 30, agreed to meet the couple a day later for a psychic reading. That’s when they told her she needed a costly “spiritual cleansing,” a criminal complaint said.
Several thousands of dollars later, Stevens told Canlas that the spirits were determined and that she would need numerous follow-up sessions and “spiritual medicine,” authorities said.
Stevens then allegedly held Canlas in a local hotel for four days, threatened her if she did not follow his instructions and fed her THC marijuana pills that left her “disoriented.”
Officials said a drugged-up Canlas was never left alone and was not permitted to sleep.
Stevens also took Canlas to jewelry stores in Manhattan, where she spent more than $40,000, and forced her to make more than $60,000 in credit-card cash advances, police said.
Canlas managed to escape the hotel room and called cops.
Stevens, of 80-30 Broadway, Queens, faces kidnapping, grand larceny and assault charges, according to a spokeswoman for the Manhattan DA.