
ANATOMY OF A PHONE-BUST
or "HOW TO GET CAUGHT"


by Benjamin Dover


Typed & submitted by:
THE RESEACHER


I started phreaking several years ago as a result of an article in the
October 1971 issue of Esquire magazine, but I was never in contact with any
other "phone phreaks". I designed and developed my own "box" which was about
6 x 3 1/2 x 1 1/2 in size. After getting the bugs out, I used my box for
about a year and a half.

Then, in the winter of '73 my Uncle got busted (I had made him a box too).
Since my wife worked for Ma Bell it didn't take long for them to get their
suspicions up and put a tap on our phone. Then on March 10th, our apartment
was raided by Bell and their gestapo stooges. Fortunately, I had a little
warning because they also tried on March 9th at 7 o'clock in the morning but
didn't get an answer.

After tearing our apartment apart, and in the process stealing some good porno
that they had no damn business taking, I was told that probably nothing else
would happen. Let this, however, be a lesson -- on March 20th I went to work
at 11pm, (The D.A.'s office knew I worked nights) and at 11:45 the local cops
arrested my wife on California Penal Code 702 (b) fraud, a misdemeanor. I went
to bail her out as soon as I heard what had happened and they arrested me too!
The bail was $300 each, more than we had, so I had to get a bondsman to bail us
out.

I asked the cops why they had served the warrant so damned late and they said
that the D.A.'s office had given them those instructions.

On March 24th my wife was suspended from her job as a frameworker at Pacific
Bell. This job had nothing to do with phreaking, there were no parts or
information which she could have supplied me even if she wanted to, she simply
didn't have access to such things. (The phone company security people admitted
this as well).

I saw no easy way out and hired the Law Offices of Richard Monroe in Los
Angeles since they were reputed to have had some luck in fighting the Big Bell.
After over $1,200 in attorney's bills, I found out that "hard evidence" (ie. a
Blue Box), wasn't necessary for conviction. The tapes of five phone
conversations, including codes and routings was evidence enough, and was legal
evidence in court.

Monroe told me that with expert witnesses and about 6 to 7 days in court, and
a bill for about $6,000, I might beat the rap. So I changed my plea to "no
contest" as part of a plea bargain. I was to pay the phone company what I owed
them (about $140) and serve a little summary probation. They would in turn
dismiss all charges against my wife.

With that settled, we went to court and appeared before Judge Beverly Rance,
who incidently had signed the search warrant. She was willing to accept the
plea as applied to my wife but balked when it came to me. I was referred to
the probation department prior to sentencing and ordered to appear before her
again in one month.

The probation officer tried to get me to admit that I still had a box, was
still operating and that I had, in fact, made more calls than I had been
charged with. I refused to play his game so he decided to stick it to me.
He recommended both jail and probation, even though the phone company didn't
want to press for jail at the time.

Back in court Judge Beverly, who has a reputation for being an old battle-ax,
was given the probation officer's report. She was visably pleased and told my
attorney that the only thing wrong was that she had considerably more time in
jail figured for me. (The report had reccomended 5 days.) So I ended up with a
fine of $375; six days in jail (to be served on weekends); six months probation
and restitution to Ma Bell in the amount of $145.27. Last of all I had to
promise never to indulge in such activity again.

One interesting fact came out during this affair. My attorney and a friend of
mine went to examine the phone company's evidence. Part of this was in the form
of computer print-outs and revealed that in addition to my apartment, 12 others
in our building had also been tapped. (A fact that is now denied, and probably
erased from the computer in any case.) The purpose of the multiple taps is to
see if you are, perhaps, using someone else's line to commit illegal acts.

In trying to analyze why we got caught, I can only tell a story of my own
stupidity. First of all, we had an unlisted number for years and never had
trouble. It wasn't untill my wife listed the phone in order to take her
company discount that we stood out like a red flag. Ma Bell was checking up on
the numbers we were calling. Second, we got careless with the passing time to
the point of using names while calling. Third, some of my wifes calls were to
Finland (where she comes from) and lasted in excess of an hour, which of
course sounds the gong when they start checking for 800 numbers. And finally
we were damned fools for calling from home at all! Once or twice a month, in
an emergency, for 5 minutes or so probably would have been allright, but
with modern detection equipment anything from home is really foolish.

I am now a little wiser, and out of the phone phreak business. I am still
fascinated by the phone company, perhaps more than ever as a result of what
has happened. I now collect what information I can on phreaking and the
law. Take my advice, if you want to play with Ma Bell, get to know her first.


