Payphones. Who needs 'em anymore? But long ago they were my business. As a Southwestern Bell telephone man I used to repair payphones. And the joke among the repairmen was you can run over someone with your phone truck and it's OK. But if you take a dime from a coin phone, you're fired.
That said, there was a guy that had figured out how to beat the company.
There were four bolts holding the payphone to the wall inside the upper housing. There were also four more security bolts behind the coin box. Only the collection department had access to the coin box. Some installer managed to get several payphone installed at the airport without the security bolts.
He would go to the airport on Friday night and install his payphones (that he had stolen) and then put the originals back on Sunday night. He would get all the revenue from the weekend. This went on for years.
Then a telco security person was traveling one Friday and saw him working on his project and wondered why he was doing that so late at night. An investigation followed with a sting operation. They found he had taken more than ten cents. All good things come to an end.
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6 comments:
Fantastic ingenuity!
The pastor asked if anyone in the congregation would like to express praise for answered prayers. Suzie Smith stood and walked to the podium. She said, "I have a praise. Two months ago, my husband, Tom, had a terrible bicycle wreck and his scrotum was completely crushed. The pain was excruciating and the doctors didn't know if they could help him." You could hear a muffled gasp from the men in the congregation as they imagine the pain that poor Tom must have experienced. "Tom was unable to hold me or the children," she went on, "and every move caused him terrible pain." We prayed as the doctors performed a delicate operation, and it turned out they were able to piece together the crushed remnants of Tom's scrotum, and wrap wire around it to hold it in place."
Again, the men in the congregation cringed and squirm uncomfortably as they imagined the horrible surgery performed on Tom.
"Now," she announced in a quivering voice, "thank the Lord, Tom is out of the hospital and the doctors say that with time, his scrotum should recover completely."
All the men sighed with unified relief. The pastor rose and tentatively asked if anyone else had something to say.
A man stood up and walked slowly to the podium.
He said, "I'm Tom Smith." The entire congregation held its breath.
"I just want to tell my wife the word is sternum."
Nice way to make money on weekends.
Surely there would be a pay phone in the Smithsonian?
Cloudia - A girl just typing the word scrotum makes me all tingly inside.
Grand & Chuck - He should have patented his idea.
Angel - Sadly that's probably true. Maybe even a working one!
For those of us who went to college in the 60s and early 70s, before cell phones were available, the pay phone was our only option for calling home to ask for money with which to make more calls home to ask for money.
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