Pay Telephones

Two men were arrested Saturday on suspicion of stealing more than eight public phones that were found in their Anaheim home, police said. Larry Dean Collins, 42, was taken into custody after witnesses saw him pull up in front of a Price Club on South Harbor Street around 10 a.m., dismantle a pay phone and throw it in the hatchback of his car, Lt. Tony Hernandez said. "He just set up three cones around the phone and unbolted it," Hernandez said.

Huntington Park's mayor said Monday that high-tech pay phones will be installed on city sidewalks to help cut crime. Huntington Park City Council members believe that the new Pacific Bell phones--equipped with calling card fraud detectors and high-powered night lights--will deter crimes involving pay phone use along portions of busy Pacific Boulevard.

Chicago moved to fight gangs Wednesday by hanging up the phones they use for drug deals. The City Council approved without discussion a measure to ban outdoor pay phones on vacant buildings and lots, outside liquor stores and bars and on residential streets. The ordinance will result in the immediate removal of about 500 phones, Revenue Director Judith Rice said.

Moving to discourage crime along Sepulveda Boulevard, Pacific Bell officials announced Friday that they will adjust more than a dozen pay phones in Van Nuys to eliminate incoming calls on the machines. As many as 18 pay phones along Sepulveda between Burbank and Roscoe boulevards will be targeted. The action is a response to complaints raised by members of the Sepulveda Boulevard Business Watch.

A law that would require the removal of pay telephones used for drug sales, prostitution and other crimes was approved Tuesday by the City Council. In what is considered the first of its kind for Orange County but part of a growing trend throughout the state, the city ordinance seeks to curb crimes transacted through pay telephones and pagers and would allow the removal of the phones for one year if they are declared a "public nuisance."

The snowy hills are dotted with gnarled pinon and juniper trees. Withered rabbitbrush fills the flats, where an old windmill pumps water for a stock tank. It's another quiet winter afternoon in the high desert of western New Mexico. So what is a telephone booth doing here? With a hinged folding door and plate glass all around, it is ordinary looking, if a little old-fashioned. It is the sort of phone booth Clark Kent might have used.

A proposed law that would require the removal of pay telephones used for drug sales, prostitution or other crimes was put on hold by the City Council on Monday after phone company representatives raised objections. The ordinance--the first of its kind for Orange County--would allow the city to declare a pay telephone a "public nuisance" and order its removal for at least one year.

In what is considered the first action of its kind in the county, the City Council on Monday will consider a law that would require removal of pay telephones used for drug sales, prostitution or other illegal activities. The move to regulate such phones found to be a "public nuisance" is part of a statewide law-enforcement trend seeking to curb crimes transacted with pay telephones and pagers.