First Aired - February 8th, 1968
Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon are working in the Frauds Division, Bunco Section. A modern-day gypsy runs a spiritual guidance business as a method to steal money from clients. Friday and Gannon go undercover to catch her in policy bribery to put other gypsies out of business and protect her own business.
Just the Tropes, ma'am:
- Actually, I Am Him: Friday and Dorothy Miller arrest Mother Maria. Mother Maria says that her warrant is no longer valid as Sergeant Friday has taken care of it, not realizing that Sergeant Friday is the one arresting her. Billy Catcher and Dallas Andrews later ask her which cop who arrested her, and Friday says he was the one who personally arrested her.
- Bribe Backfire: Friday and Gannon are offered a bribe by Dallas Andrews and Billy Catcher to put a rival family out of business in order to protect Mother Maria, one of Billy Catcher's clients. Once Friday is given the money, Dallas Andrews gives a list of all of the rival family's businesses and Billy's businesses. However, Friday and Gannon arrest everyone on both lists and get enough proof to arrest Dallas Andrews and Billy Catcher.
- Brownface: None of the actors playing the fortune tellers are Romanian.
- Elder Abuse: Almost all of the fortune tellers are mainly targeting senior citizens.
- Fake Wizardry: The fortune tellers use fake magic tricks in order to scam their clients out of money. Both Friday and Gannon have seen and know all of their tricks.
- The Mole: Someone in the justice system is leaking information to the fortune tellers whenever an arrest warrant is out for one of the fortune tellers.
- Phony Psychic: None of the fortune tellers are psychics, they are con artists running a scam to bilk people out of their money.
