Meet the '80s Pay Phone Bandit Who Eluded the FBI for Years

Once upon a time, long before the days of smart phones, pay phones were the most convenient way to reach someone when you were on the go. Jake Rossen delves into a true crime story for Mental Floss centered on these relics from the past, and an anti-hero of sorts who figured out how to rob them of their loot, all while eluding law enforcement and the FBI for years. Pay phones have lockboxes to store the coins deposited in them that are "virtually impregnable," Rossen writes. But they only store about $150 in change, making them less attractive for criminals to spend considerable energy breaking into.

"If a would-be thief wanted to even have a shot at getting into the box, they'd have to try smashing it open with a sledge hammer or knock it out of the ground with a tractor." But mechanist James Clark of Akron, Ohio, had a new approach in mind in the early '80s. After spending some time in jail for a fraud scheme, he came out with fresh ideas. He obtained a set of locks used to open pay phone coin boxes, and created custom locksmith tools that would help him puzzle out the mechanisms to unlock different types of coin boxes. Ransacked phones began drawing the attention of local police, but Clark was methodical in when and where he struck, making him impossible to track down.

He also liked to troll his marks, sometimes registering under the name of phone bigwig James Bell when staying at hotels near his targets. In all, he may have taken up to $1 million in coins from phone booths, though the total is unknown. He was dubbed the "Telephone Bandit," and appeared on America's Most Wanted twice, UPI reported in 1988, noting that a $25,000 bounty put up by Ohio Bell Telephone was offered for his arrest. A series of tips finally led the FBI to Clark's doorstep in Buena Park, California, where he was arrested in 1988. 'He may not be Jack the Ripper, but he is a one-of-a-kind thief whose total take exceeds $500,000," said special agent Lawrence Lawler at the time. "We're glad to have him corralled." (More in weird crime.)