I am in no way shocked to find out that you have Romanian gypsies begging in the US as well.
They've been here for centuries, and they always act like ... gypsies.
Twenty or more years ago, the state in which I grew up had a very old and obscure law prohibiting "fortune telling." It had been on the books for almost 100 year at the time and had NEVER been used ... until the police in one small-ish city heard about a woman whose job was as a corporate executive but who, in her spare time, would attend parties and give psychic readings. And, from reports, she was very good ... which is why people continued to invite her. She never advertised (this is crucial -- read on).
So two enterprising cops called her, made an appointment, went to see her posing as boyfriend-girlfriend, had a reading regarding the future of their purported "relationship" and, as soon as they had paid her, they slapped the cuffs on her and arrested her under this law. I knew the attorney who defended her, and he got her off by the tried-and-true expedient of asking the judge to read the law.
As written, the law had two parts: (1) It was illegal to advertise to tell the future. The woman didn't advertise, and the state introduced no evidence suggesting that she had advertised. (2) It was illegal to
fraudulently foretell the future for money. The state introduced no evidence to suggest that the woman had in any way acted fraudulently. Rather, the state's position was that merely foretelling the future, even if she was 100 percent correct, was prohibited. The defense let the state present its case, then moved for a dismissal. The judge agreed. Case closed.
Here's where the Gypsies come in. Following this case, a consortium of "New Age" bookstores, all of which ran so-called psychic fairs, went to the legislature and asked to have this old and clearly ambiguous law repealed. One of the arguments was that the only prosecution under it in 100 years had failed because neither the cops nor the prosecutor even understood what it said, yet there HAD been a successful prosecution and conviction of two Gypsy women who claimed to have put curses on people and then demanded large payments to remove said curses ... under different laws prohibiting racketeering. The legislature agreed and repealed the law.
So I know for a fact that my old home state has incarcerated at least two Gypsies for doing what Gypsies do.
