I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this, but here is a method I devised for obtaining a non-published home phone number (you need the person's address):
1) go to
http://anywho.com/2) Under "find a person" press "search" (don't enter anything). You will now get a new search page that includes a place to enter the street name.
3) In the "last name" field enter "**", enter the street name of the person whose number you're trying to obtain, enter state, enter zip code, press search. You will now have a list of all the people on that street who do have a published number (the longer the street, the longer the list you have to wade through).
4) Go through the list and pick the people with the house numbers closest to the person whose number you are trying to obtain.
5) Start with the house number that is the closest, call it and say something like "hey, this is Bill Johnson down the street. I normally wouldn't bother you but it's important that I get a hold of <person whose number you're looking for> but I've lost his/her number, do you have it?"
Depending on how charming you are it may take a few calls, but you will probably get the number. This has worked for me on more than one occasion.
