Woman Arrested in Alleged Occult Services Swindle

SANTA PAULA —  Nine months after allegedly bilking a Santa Paula couple out of $5,400 by claiming she could solve their financial problems, a self-described gypsy is behind bars on suspicion of grand theft, authorities said.

Santa Paula police made the arrest Saturday, one week after Spanish-language fliers advertising the occult services of someone called “Natalia Cruz” began popping up all over town.

Officers arrested 38-year-old Carmen Campo, who was being held in Ventura County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail, Police Sgt. Steven Carter said.

An undercover police officer went to the woman’s Harvard Boulevard home and determined that the suspect fit the description of a woman who conned a couple out of more than $5,000 in 1996, Carter said.

“These [victims] are usually suffering some sort of personal dilemma. They are probably superstitious or deeply religious,” Carter said.

In September 1996, a Latino couple responded to a Spanish-language flier from a woman calling herself “Yuri Chara,” who claimed she could solve personal, financial and medical problems.

“The couple provided the suspect with $5,400, and she wrapped the cash in a piece of material and instructed the victims not to unwrap the bundle for 10 days,” Carter said.

Within two days of that visit, “Yuri Chara” had vanished with the cash.

“I didn’t know that she was back in town until there was a flier on my door,” Carter said.

Not only did the fliers advertise the same types of services as last year, they directed customers to an apartment one door away from where the couple had been cheated out of their thousands.

As instructed, the undercover officer went to the apartment with a wad of cash, a piece of material to be blessed and a tale of woe.

Inside the apartment, officers found thousands of fliers and items that indicate the woman and her entourage were operating as far south as Huntington Park in Los Angeles County. Group members, who have left town, may have been planning to move to the Santa Barbara County city of Santa Maria, Carter said.

Officers also found the woman’s children, a 15-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy.

“Neither of the children had been to school, and the 15-year-old could not read and write,” Carter said. Both children were turned over to a friend of Campo who was not involved in the alleged crime.

Carter said the teenage girl told police: “We lead a gypsy lifestyle.”