Friday, February 5, 2010

Hiding in plain sight

Regular readers of the Chief’s Corner know that I have a keen interest in history, and from time to time post stories about artifacts around the police station. A couple of months ago, for one reason or another, I noticed the demise of the phone booth in Lincoln. I just couldn’t find one. I wanted to snap a photo to preserve the history, but despite keeping an eye peeled on my normal routes of travel, I had no luck.

Last Thursday, I jokingly mentioned this on my monthly radio show with Dale Johnson, at KFOR radio. The lines lit up, and in short order citizens clued me in to the location of a handful. One of those, it turns out, is on the northeast corner of N. 27th and Holdrege Streets—directly across from the Lincoln Police Department’s Center Team station. I’ve only driven by this a few thousand times. There it was, hiding in plain sight.

booth

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chief=I found these to be a Super place to change outfits in the past.

256

Anonymous said...

OMG...Is that a red ford ranger in the top of the photo?

Anonymous said...

The link to google maps really shows the economy..not a car on the lot.

Anonymous said...

7:00 AM

It's hard to tell from the angle of the photo, but it could be a bird, it could be a plane, but it's certainly faster than a bullet or a speeding train. And, it's able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. Probably need x-ray vision to see clearly unless there is Kryptonite present in the vicinity.

256

Anonymous said...

Is that one of those little euro-shops where they sell SIM cards?

Anonymous said...

Situational awareness Chief?
I thought I was the only one that did things like this.

Gun Nut

Grundle King said...

Good thing it wasn't a rattlesnake...

Can't blame ya though, I never noticed it either. Then again, I've had a cell phone since I moved to Lincoln 10 years ago, so I haven't needed a payphone.

ARRRRG!!!! said...

The cell phone has nearly made the phone booth a thing of the past.

Too bad the cell phone booth never caught on.

Anonymous said...

I never thought I'd see the day that Arrg posts a non pirate picture!

Anonymous said...

Maybe this should be your new phone booth
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/michigan-sheriff-drives-drug-dealers-confiscated-ford-mustang/19345330?icid=main|htmlws-sb-n|dl1|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Fmichigan-sheriff-drives-drug-dealers-confiscated-ford-mustang%2F19345330

ARRRRG!!!! said...

I wanted to see if anyone noticed.

Steve said...

I think cell phone booths should be required for those who use them!

Anonymous said...

@10:37am
No, it's "Judy's Nails" - a nail salon, which ironically, is no longer owned by Judy. Stop in and say hi to Vicki & Cindy!

Anonymous said...

Chief,

Did you ever identify any suspect for A9-115942?

Anonymous said...

Funny...I've seen the phone booth a thousand times but never knew it was right across the street from a LPD substation...

Anonymous said...

I drove past a phone booth recently and my five-year old perked up and said, "What is THAT?"

Anonymous said...

As a realtor, several years ago I showed a house where the whole covered back porch was made out of phone booths. Found out the owner had worked for LT&T and when they were scrapped, he took them home.