TV Show Helps Foil Crooks, Catch Them : Crime: Cable program in Torrance uses local scenes, tips on local wrongdoers to dramatically assist police and protect citizens.

Michael Ellington peers into Camera 1 at Torrance’s public access cable television studio and cautions viewers about a con artist “psychic” at large in the South Bay.

Her name is Ana Del Campo, Ellington tells viewers, as a mug shot flashes across the screen. She’s 43 years old, white, with brown hair and brown eyes. Ellington says she has swindled five people, including a Torrance restaurateur who gave Del Campo $50,000 in cash to reverse a death curse on her daughter.

Del Campo pleaded guilty to grand theft by trick or device, but in December failed to appear in court for sentencing.

For the next two weeks, Del Campo’s face will appear on the newest segment of a cable TV crime-stopper show called “In Hot Pursuit.”

The show’s format loosely resembles Fox TV’s “America’s Most Wanted,” minus the slick dramatizations. Ellington, the show’s 39-year-old host, reporter, writer and producer, narrates as mug shots of suspects and video footage of crime scenes flash across the screen.

In addition, there are two segments designed to educate viewers: “Legal Eye,” which explains the state Penal Code, and “Crimesafe,” which gives viewers tips on protecting themselves from crime. During a recent “Crimesafe” segment, store managers were advised to place tape in various colors, standing for various heights, along door jambs so, if they saw a fleeing thief, they could tell his or her height.

“In Hot Pursuit” began in September, 1990, and is funded by the city of Torrance. A new show is taped every two weeks and is shared with neighboring cable companies.

Show times vary. In Torrance, the show airs every day at 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Channel 22. In Gardena, it’s on at 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday on Channel 22, and Palos Verdes Peninsula viewers can catch it Tuesday through Friday at 5 p.m. on Channel 43. Local cable companies have complete listings.

Each half-hour show opens with a fictionalized reenactment of two Torrance officers pursuing a crowbar-wielding robber. With a tense theme song in the background, the officers race through city streets, finally nabbing the robber in a downtown Torrance alley.

The lead-in segment features South Bay landmarks, such as banks, shopping malls and neighborhoods where real crimes have occurred. Seeing South Bay sites on TV adds drama to the events and makes local viewers perk up, Ellington said, because “they’ve seen that place before.”

In that way, Ellington said, “In Hot Pursuit,” which costs about $250 an episode, is better than the high-budget “America’s Most Wanted.”

“We try to put a microscope on the communities where crime is going on,” said Ellington, an aspiring television personality who works part time for the cable company. “People recognize the streets. They know the houses. Maybe they’ve even dealt with our guy. It’s much more likely that they’ll be able to recognize our criminal than the ones on ‘America’s Most Wanted,’ where suspects come from all over the country.”

One of the first episodes profiled fugitive embezzlers James and Georgia June Mulchahey, a South Bay couple who were convicted of bilking a Harbor-area insurance agency out of $151,000.

The Mulchaheys are in jail partly because a tipster--ironically, a Lomita sheriff’s detective--spotted them on “In Hot Pursuit.”

Detective Marty Weirich said that when a fellow officer brought James Mulchahey into the station on an unrelated charge, Weirich remembered the face from a previous show.

In the seven months that “In Hot Pursuit” has been on the air, 19 suspects have been profiled, and four of those are in custody, at least two as a direct result of the show, Ellington said.

Such successes have made “In Hot Pursuit” a hit with local law enforcement agencies.

“We’re very enthused about the program. It’s done professionally. It’s a good tool for law enforcement,” said Weirich, who received about 15 calls after one of his cases involving a fugitive armed robbery suspect was aired.

Sgt. Ron Traber of the Torrance Police Department also praises the show, calling it another way to entice citizens to get involved. Traber said he wished “In Hot Pursuit,” which airs only on cable TV, had a wider audience.

“People have an interest in knowing things that aren’t fiction,” Traber said. “They want to see criminals apprehended. . . . They want to see good prevail.”

If the proliferation of similar shows is any indication, Traber may be right. Jack Breslan, a spokesman for “America’s Most Wanted,” said he knows of at least 22 spinoff programs throughout the country, both in development and on cable and commercial TV.

“People are frustrated with the level of crime in the United States,” Breslan said. “These programs are an effective way to fight back within the system.”

“America’s Most Wanted,” which debuted in 1988, gets more than 2,500 viewer calls each week, he added.

Ellington doesn’t know how many calls his show elicits because he says he doesn’t have time to count them. As soon as he wraps up one show, Ellington says, he’s lining up interviews for the next.

Coming up with story ideas is no problem for Ellington, who relies on tips from South Bay law enforcement agencies.

“They always have something for us,” Ellington said. The current show profiling Del Campo is an example.

Lennox Sheriff’s Detective Ron Gomez told Ellington about the “psychic” swindler who targeted Latino neighborhoods in Lennox and Lawndale. Del Campo, also known as Ana Sevich, posed as a fortune-teller with magical powers.

After distributing flyers promoting her spiritual skills, Del Campo lured victims into one of several rented homes with the promise of reversing hexes and bringing good luck, Gomez said. Del Campo used simple magician’s tricks to convince victims that her psychic ability was real and worth thousands of dollars, he added.

During the current “Crimesafe” segment of “In Hot Pursuit,” Long Beach magician Johnathon Matthews demonstrates a few of Del Campo’s tricks. In one case, when a worm magically appears in a cracked raw egg, the magician reveals how Del Campo secretly dropped it into the bowl. Del Campo would then tell the victims the worm was a sign of bad luck and that she could remove the evil spirits causing the bad luck.

Ellington tells viewers that Del Campo, a native of Chile, used a series of tricks to earn the victims’ trust and get their money.

Del Campo’s final trick in the series involved a velvet magician’s bag. Matthews shows viewers how the victims stuffed cash into a weighted bag. As the cash bag dropped to the floor, Del Campo exchanged it with a second bag stuffed with newspaper. The victim was told to bury the bag and in a month it would be filled with a surprise.

When the victims dug up the bag, their surprise was that their cash was gone, as was Del Campo. She is believed to be at large in the South Bay, Ellington tells viewers.

Peering into the camera, Ellington makes a final appeal as several law enforcement phone numbers flash across the screen: “If you’ve been the victim of this scam or if you’ve seen Del Campo or any of the people she works with, do not confront them yourself. Call Detective Ron Gomez.

“Remember,” Ellington croons as he signs off show No. 13, “the streets are only as safe as we make them. Area residents and law enforcement can stop the spread of crime if we get involved.”