Jobless man in China found to have hacked public phone booth for years, accessing free movies and games
- The phone booth’s owner, China Telecom, is looking into the situation
A jobless man in China has for years turned a touch screen payphone into his personal computer, spending most of his nights freeloading off the internet for novels, movies and video games.
A video of the man browsing webpages at the public phone booth in Chongqing became popular on Chinese social media in recent days, prompting the booth’s owner, China Telecom, to look into the situation.
In the video, the man in a black hoodie – who claimed to be a former mechanical worker – demonstrated how to use a screwdriver-like tool to hack the payphone within seconds. He then accessed the internet to read novels and play a video game, among other things. A virtual keyboard that popped up on the screen also enabled him to use the Baidu search engine.
“I don’t have a mobile phone,” the man said to the camera. “I use this to read novels and watch movies.”
Residents and vendors nearby are quoted as saying in the video that for the past two or three years the man has occupied the phone booth almost every night, with each session lasting for several hours.
