NY TIMES
A few days after Beck Lawrence was profiled in a business newsletter about the tarot card readings they offered at their shop in Hanover, Pa., the police chief dropped by for a visit. But it was not to have his fortune told.
Instead, Chief Chad E. Martin informed Mx. Lawrence at their witchcraft-themed store, the Serpent’s Key Shoppe and Sanctuary, on Oct. 5 that any complaints about the readings would lead to an investigation, citing an archaic state law that makes it illegal to predict the future for money.
“He informed me basically he is not here to arrest me or press charges,” Mx. Lawrence, 26, who uses they/them pronouns, said in a telephone interview on Friday. “However, if he ever gets a report from anyone, he will be back on my doorstep.”
Mx. Lawrence, who moved to Hanover in 2019 and opened the shop in January, offers a menu of tarot card readings, which cost $10 to $100, either in person or over Zoom.
Signs are posted saying the services are for entertainment purposes only. Candles, soaps and other handmade merchandise are also sold there.
The shop was profiled in the October “spooky season” issue of Main Street Hanover, a monthly newsletter that introduces a new business owner in the borough, which is not far from the border with Maryland.
“The shop, as the name suggests, is meant to be a sanctuary for anyone looking to connect with their spirituality on a deeper level,” the article said.
A few days after the article was published, Mx. Lawrence was informed by borough officials that the police chief had read it and was going to stop by.
Mx. Lawrence described the ordeal to nearly 200,000 followers in a series of TikTok videos, including one in which they donned “protective jewelry” and a black “structured blazer” reminiscent of ravens’ wings to prepare for the visit.
Mx. Lawrence said the visit from Chief Martin and another officer was “intimidating.”
“Basically, he didn’t give me any advice or anything,” Mx. Lawrence said, adding that the message was, “Hey, just so you know, this is the law.”
The Hanover Police Department said on Friday that Chief Martin was not available to comment.
News of his appearance at the shop, which Mx. Lawrence said is one of at least four “metaphysical” stores in Hanover, was widely shared on social media, fueling questions about the use of taxpayer money, what constitutes a good use of police time and whether the visit amounted to a suppression of religious freedom.
Chief Martin defended the visit in a post on Facebook.
He referred to the law, Title 18, Section 7104, which says it is a misdemeanor to pretend, “for gain or lucre, to tell fortunes or predict future events, by cards, tokens, the inspection of the head or hands of any person, or by the age of anyone, or by consulting the movements of the heavenly bodies.”
In his statement, the chief said “there was never an investigation, nor was there any threat of arrest in this matter.” But the department would be obligated to investigate, he said, “if a complaint was made against someone for engaging in acts qualifying as ‘fortunetelling.’”
Anyone who doesn’t like the law, he suggested, should contact their legislators.
Mx. Lawrence, who has studied tarot and witchcraft for 13 years, said tarot readings are meant to help a person by giving clarity about their path in life.
They do not tell a person what is in store for them, such as whether they will win money, or reveal the whereabouts of missing loved ones, they said.
“I pull my cards and study the symbols,” Mx. Lawrence said. “My job is to string these things together of what I am seeing. It is up to their free will. There is nothing set in stone. I am 26. I don’t know the answers.”
Local news organizations have poked fun at the statute.
In 2022, WHTM-TV included it in a list of “laws that residents might consider antiquated, useless, or just plain silly,” alongside state prohibitions on such activities as catching a fish with one’s bare hands or buying a car on a Sunday.
In 2019, The York Daily Record included the statue in a roundup of “wacky” laws, noting that it also prohibited “making love potions and drawing maps to buried treasure.”
The law barring fortunetelling, a misdemeanor, is rarely prosecuted, The Daily Local News reported in a 2021 article about a Philadelphia woman, April S. Uwanawich, who pleaded guilty to four counts of fortunetelling and was sentenced to 14 days to a year in jail.
Matt M. McClenahen, a lawyer in Pennsylvania, said that fortunetelling businesses in the state use disclaimers that their services are “for entertainment purposes only.”
“The law protects gullible people from being ripped off,” he said in an article about the statute on his website.
Even as they bristled at the chief’s visit, Mx. Lawrence acknowledged that the law had a purpose: “It is there to protect people from scam artists.”
