Iowa Payphone Defends Itself (Associated Press, 1984)(payphone-project.com)
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Iowa Payphone Defends Itself (Associated Press, 1984)
https://www.payphone-project.com/iowa-payphone-defends-itself-ap-story-from-october-1984.html
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Fight with phone lost
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Police responding to reports of a stabbing found instead a bleeding 20-year-old man who lost a confrontation with a pay telephone, authorities said.
According to police, Richard A. Anderson had tried to call a friend from a pay phone and when the call went unanswered angrily tried to jerk the receiver out of the phone.
Police said Anderson just managed to stretch the wire webbing that covers the telephone cord. The receiver stayed put. So Anderson again vented his anger — this time by throwing the receiver, police said.
But when the receiver reached the end of its cord, it snapped back and the cord wrapped around Anderson's neck.
The sharp edges of the wire webbing dug into Anderson's skin, cutting him. When Anderson struggled to free himself, the webbing cut deeper.
"Once we got out what had happened," said one police officer. "it was, 'Be real. This did not happen."
Anderson was treated at University Hospitals and released.
Fight with phone lost
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Police responding to reports of a stabbing found instead a bleeding 20-year-old man who lost a confrontation with a pay telephone, authorities said.
According to police, Richard A. Anderson had tried to call a friend from a pay phone and when the call went unanswered angrily tried to jerk the receiver out of the phone.
Police said Anderson just managed to stretch the wire webbing that covers the telephone cord. The receiver stayed put. So Anderson again vented his anger — this time by throwing the receiver, police said.
But when the receiver reached the end of its cord, it snapped back and the cord wrapped around Anderson's neck.
The sharp edges of the wire webbing dug into Anderson's skin, cutting him. When Anderson struggled to free himself, the webbing cut deeper.
"Once we got out what had happened," said one police officer. "it was, 'Be real. This did not happen."
Anderson was treated at University Hospitals and released.
Do we believe this story? It just really seems like he's covering up for someone?
I believe it. People born after the payphone era might not realize that the telephone cord in this case wouldn't be the cushy plastic home-telephone cord such as you can find by googling "strangled with telephone cord," but rather a "payphone armored cord", which looks almost like a "metal-clad electrical cable" except more flexible and stretchy (such that you conceivably could get a nasty pinch from it when it contracted again).
Also, while I believe a payphone-cord pinch could draw blood, I don't believe any hospital staffer could mistake an actual stabbing wound for such a pinch. So the guy couldn't have actually gotten stabbed. Although I guess he could have been covering up for the drunk friend who dared him to pinch his neck in a payphone cord...
Also, while I believe a payphone-cord pinch could draw blood, I don't believe any hospital staffer could mistake an actual stabbing wound for such a pinch. So the guy couldn't have actually gotten stabbed. Although I guess he could have been covering up for the drunk friend who dared him to pinch his neck in a payphone cord...
Unbelievable!
We used to call it a "phortress"
Alternate title: "Local man not a snitch"
The full AP story from 1984 (including the last two sentences, which were snipped off of the clipping in TFA for some reason) is available in a few places, e.g. in the Lake City Reporter of 1984-10-31, under the headline "Fight With Phone Lost":
https://newspapers.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00028308/08196/zoom/18