This guy must have been the first volunteer for overtime or he was racking it up. He'd get done early, but at the end of the day I guess he found it humorous to dial phone sex lines while on the clock. I reckon that's probably how Verizon did end up catching the guy. That or somebody called the cops on a phone tech jerkin the gerkin up on the pole.

@missdona: Glad to hear you didn't get so screwed by that guy. That landlord sounds like a special breed of asshole. Had that SOB done that to me, keeping his vehicle's battery charged would be the LEAST of his problems.

Who still uses 900 numbers? Hasn't this guy heard of the Internet?!?!

Phone Sex Operator - "cable is so much slower than dsl"

Joseph - "OOHHHHHHH"

The only known aphrodesiac for human females is a Porsche 911...

The only known sexual suppressant for human males is wedding cake...

Thanks. Tip your waitresses. We'll be here all week.

What was this tech supposed to be doing during these calls? How much did the rate payers of N J Bell/Verizon pay in non productive time or rate increases-'need an increase,our techs are busy too cover the work load'

Article said customers complained about unauthorized use/bills.I wonder if a customer actually caught him or knew A phone tech wss using their line.He's got to know he can be tracked by the facilities and assigned techs in those areas.

Well,at least we know why he took a job where you get to climb poles.

5000 calls in 10 months = 5000 / (10*30) = ~16 calls per day.

45,000 mins / 5000 calls = 9 mins. per call

16 calls * 9 mins = 144 mins (2 hrs. 24 mins) per day doin' phone nasties

$220,000 for 5000 calls = $44 per call
$44 per call / 9 min = $4.88/min.
$220,000 for 45,000 mins = $4.88/min.

$4.88 per min. * 60 mins. = $292.80 per hour

I am not lying, I never made the calls, scout's honor.

strike
s
del

I'm not sure if you're kidding. That little anomaly of the law has always struck me as phenomenally retarded super-ridiculously complicated.

I just spent an hour trying to wrap my head around age of consent vs. age of majority, affirmative defense, statutory rape, contributing to delinquency of a minor.

I give up. I guess I'll just accept anything under 18 is playing with fire (and apparently even if both parties are under 18).

@BrianDaBrain: Probably not, being New Jersey and all...

@FLEB: They refused to settle for $100.

We escrowed rent for a year after it happened. And we also called the town and the health dept and had them written up for every conceivable violation. They had no C/O and they paid dearly for it. They wanted us to move, just to get out of their hair, we were saving to buy, so we didn't feel like moving. It turned into the most massive landlord/tenant pissing contest you could possibly imagine. When we were ready to move, we settled for 20% of the back rent.

And FYI- while we were on our honeymoon (during the winter), he turned on the heat (that we paid for) and charged his broken-down jeep with a heavy duty extension cord that was running to our living room. All we asked for was to split the utility bill for that month, since they wasted our heat and stole our electricity for 14 days and they refused. Stupid, short-sighted people.

@AD8BC: LOL that is scary but the technology is understandable.

That's just... WRONG. $220,000 worth of calls... that man was BUSY. You'd almost think somebody, somewhere would notice a guy hanging on a telephone pole jacking off... or maybe not.

@dorianh49: oh god, I hope that's a joke, because I am LAUGHING!!

I had an old college roommate that did this. He had a 500 feet spool of Radio Shack phone wire with alligator clips on one end and a phone jack on the other end. At night, he would pick a random phone line in a random junction box in the alley behind our house, clip into it, and run the line to his car, whereupon he would chat with friends long distance and overseas, and call phone sex.

Twice he clipped into our phone line accidentally... the first time I noticed on the bill, I successfully had the charge removed (I didn't know he was doing this). The second time was after he was arrested... apparantly a police car just happened to drive by and the cop saw the phone wire cross the alley into his car, and the cop got curious.

I heard this tech just had a massive stroke.

Brings new meaning to the term "Hard Wired".

imagine how that verizon van smells like?

They told him use a "butt set" to test the line, but obviously he mis-heard the instructions.

@enthreeoh: No, you have it right the first time. I wouldn't have a hard time seeing someone sue to cover the costs of counceling after an incident like that.

I'm covered same way, just saying heh.

See, this is why I share my pron with my gf, thankfully she's cool with it. That way if something like this were to happen I could say, "Honey, why would I PAY for pron when I have 200GB on my HD in my office. Use your head!"

You would think that SOMEONE would notice this sudden spike in sex chat lines in the area.

Good luck with that theft of services charge in Bergen County. There are no penalties on the books if it's proven.

My ex-landlord stole services from me and we did everything in the world to have him charged. The statute is written so poorly, it wouldn't stick.

Theft by deception, though sounds pretty good to me.

"We believe this was a highly isolated incident by an errant individual," Young said. "It should not reflect on the overwhelming majority of our workforce, who bring pride and respect to their jobs every day."

Like the masturbating salesman who brought something else to his job. [consumerist.com]

Or the Verizon employees who sent collections after a fluffly white dog? (Perhaps a pervy Bichon masturbating to poodle porn?) [consumerist.com]

...Maybe if I move a little closer...

Good!"