Baltimore’s water utility announced last week that its staff would be making regular visits to psychic Madame LaRue in an effort to more proactively identify problem areas in the distribution system.

“Other city departments have taken advantage of Madame LaRue’s services in the past,” a water utility spokesperson says. “If you want to stay on top of distribution system maintenance, you can’t overlook any possible detection methods.”

A successful pilot phase recently concluded. For example, during one session, Madame LaRue gave a water utility worker a small figurine of St. Anthony. She told him to bury it, dig it up after one hour, then place it underneath his pillow overnight. In the morning, he would suddenly know the location of a previously unknown leak. Nothing happened, according to the utility worker, but the next day there were two water main breaks that had to be dealt with.

“After the first water main break, our worker then realized that he did indeed have a vague recollection about it from the night before. Clearly Madame LaRue is onto something here. We just have to make sure we’re listening closely,” the utility spokesperson says.