Voodoo Client Made Threats, Man Tells Cops

JUNE 29--A part-time voodoo practitioner told Florida cops that a dissatisfied customer was threatening to kidnap him because his “services” did not succeed in repairing the man’s marriage, according to police.

German Padilla-Balderas, 33, contacted investigators earlier this month to report that he was receiving threats from a former co-worker (whose name was redacted from an incident report).

Padilla-Balderas, a Bradenton construction worker, said that the suspect “has been having relationship issues which resulted in his wife leaving.” Padilla-Balderas said that the man  “came to him to put ‘voodoo’ on his wife in hopes of her returning.”

But when a marital reconciliation did not materialize, Padilla-Balderas (seen above) reported, the customer “became upset with his services, claiming that they didn’t work.” The man warned that if his wife did not return by the end of June, “he will kidnap Padilla,” according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office report.

Fearful for his safety, Padilla-Balderas told cops that he believed the man would carry through on his threat, adding that his former co-worker has “ties.”

Padilla-Balderas, a Mexican native, provided investigators with little more than the suspect’s name, cops reported. (1 page)