Payphone hunting

Does anyone know how to locate a payphone? We have a skip who has been calling from payphones and all we can find is the city & state for it. I have tried the two directories online that I found but our numbers aren't listed. We have tried calling them but no answers. Any ideas?

Kathy

_________________
Kathy Blackshear
Blackshear Investigations
Blackshear Bail Bonds
Sales Associate, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.
Walsenburg, CO

Proud Member of the AB Reject Club

Kathy;

What I have done in the past is contact the local 911 Center in the town where the calls are coming from. There is a 50/50 chance the payphone is logged there. There are no on-line sources available and the phone company does not even know the location of the payphones.

_________________
Steve Hedrick
Hedrick & Associates INVESTIGATIVE GROUP
Nederland, TX
TX PI LIC #A-09665
(409) 284-1895
http://360.yahoo.com/ftachaser357
"For every DEFENDANT that fails to appear in Court, there is a VICTIM seeking Justice"

Kathy pay phones are tough as steve said there are no sources of payphone info i know of (we had alist of payphones in nyc when i was a cop but with all the new tele companies it has long since gone away) the payphone and switching companys can tell you but they are hard to get info out of---about a year ago i traced 16 payphones by using the prefix number(first three numbers)they got me to an area and than i just looked at numbers on the phones--took about 15 hours to do--if you have sources in the phone company or pd ask them it can save you mucho time and effort

To follow up on what Hadley posted, the Ma Bell's are no longer in the payphone business. The payphones that are still around are from a private vendor. For example let's say I'm in the payphone biz (which probably pays better than this Biz, but that is another topic), I can buy a block of phone numbers from my local Ma Bell. I assign those numbers to my payphones. I am not required to notify my local Ma Bell of the location of the payphone. They could care less.

The local 911 Center "may" have the location of the payphone you are looking for, only if there has been a 911 call from that location.

Now, in addition to doing what Hadley (and I) has done, locating the area of town where the first 3 numbers are from. Conduct a grid search of that area, looking for your target number. I had to do this on 1 investigation and I can tell you the exact location of EVERY payphone in Lake Charles, Louisiana! You can always try contacting the local Ma Bell where your target payphone is located - tell them you are researching a payphone & ask "who" bought that number. They will have records on that. Contact that vendor & ask them if they know the location of the payphone.

Good luck!

_________________
Steve Hedrick
Hedrick & Associates INVESTIGATIVE GROUP
Nederland, TX
TX PI LIC #A-09665
(409) 284-1895
http://360.yahoo.com/ftachaser357
"For every DEFENDANT that fails to appear in Court, there is a VICTIM seeking Justice"

Thanks everyone for your help. I forgot my email changed and I didn't get notification of responses.

I tried the local phone company but nobody there seems to know who they sell the payphone numbers to, or who to call to find out. Also, 911 in that town didn't have capability to identify their locations.

I finally just started dialing the numbers over and over until I got someone to answer some of them. I would tell them that the number had shown up on my caller ID and I needed to know the location to figure out who was calling. The three that I located were all within a 5 block area.

The guys started showing the pic around and finally found someone that knew the guy and said the local druggies had run him out for causing too much trouble. He gave them a phone number to an uncle and said that's where he was headed. One of the guys called the uncle and said he used to work with our skip and he was heading through their town and wanted to stop and see him. The uncle fell hook, line & sinker, even thinking he knew him. He told him that the skip was in another town so our guys headed there. They passed out the pics to the local PD and started asking around. One person identified him and said he had seen him trying to break into a house earlier in the day. Another saw him in a car about 4 hours later.

The local LE is actively looking for him and so is my hubby & his partner. It is a small town, so unless someone has warned him off they should get him pinned down soon. This is a $50K jumper and the bondsman is already on extension. Wish us luck, we can really use this one .

Kathy

_________________
Kathy Blackshear
Blackshear Investigations
Blackshear Bail Bonds
Sales Associate, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.
Walsenburg, CO

Proud Member of the AB Reject Club

Kathy;
Sounds like you have done a great job so far! Good luck

_________________
Steve Hedrick
Hedrick & Associates INVESTIGATIVE GROUP
Nederland, TX
TX PI LIC #A-09665
(409) 284-1895
http://360.yahoo.com/ftachaser357
"For every DEFENDANT that fails to appear in Court, there is a VICTIM seeking Justice"

Thank you Steve.

No new news except that the BEA that was helping them was in his office last night when some guy opened the door and threw in a homemade bomb. It was slow enough to blow that he and the other 3 in the office managed to get behind walls. It messed up his walls and ceiling but nobody was hurt. He chased and caught the guy down the street so he's in jail. Said somebody hired him to do it. Fortunately he didn't do that good of a job .

Kathy

_________________
Kathy Blackshear
Blackshear Investigations
Blackshear Bail Bonds
Sales Associate, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.
Walsenburg, CO

Proud Member of the AB Reject Club