My first order of business in any new city was to compromise the local phone company so I could prevent anyone from easily tracking me. For starters, I’d need one of the dial-up phone numbers that field techs used to call into the phone company switch. I would get the number for the Central Office that handled the telephone exchanges I wanted to gain control of. I’d call and say something like, "Hi. This is Jimmy over in Engineering. How you doin’ today?"