[FrankRizzo890]

And some of us learned to look for phones not belonging to the local Bell company. Once found, dial any 800 number, and when a person answers, tell them "I'm sorry, wrong number!", and wait for them to hang up. Then, dial tone, and free calls! (I know a guy who had an 800 # to a corporate voice mail system, as soon as it answered the phone, he would press '#', and it would hang up). And SOME of us even had small devices that generates "tones" that, when played into the receiver, would simulate coins being dropped in the phone. "Those were the days!"

[Getready]

I had a friend who could whistle to mimic the sounds of the phone companies trunk switching tones...free long distance!
Or tear off a 10 inch long, coin slot wide, piece of the cover from phone book..shove it down 10 cent slot on pay phone...then pull it out quickly,. While rapidly and repetitively pressing the return button. Some coins would come out into coin return area. Magic...but stealing nonetheless.

[knarf]

I remember those black boxes.

I didn't have one but my friend did.