Target Courtesy Phones

[MIB]

For anyone who goes to Target will notice there's a red phone near each price check station. What kind of pranks can be done with this?

Only one I can think of is to call and asked where they keep the chain stretchers, Buckets of steam and other non-existent items. Or call and act retarded and ask the dumbest questions about various items.

Obviously you don't want to do anything illegal or harassing, because they'll know which phone you're using and probably call the cops.

Any ideas or suggestions?

MIB

[rbcp]

If you hear someone's walkie talkie say something like, "Toys, you have a call on 35" then you can run to a phone and dial 35 to talk to a customer.  Lines can be picked up by dialing 35 or 36.

The electronics department in my Target has a cordless phone in their electronics department.  It's the same Uniden model that I use in my kitchen.  So I could bring my extra handset into Target and initialize it with their base station and I would have my own Target extension!

I really want to do this.  To initialize the handset, I have to drop it into their base station for 5 seconds and it will automatically do its thing.  I think I could do this while the electronics guy is away from the counter.  Or is there a way I could social engineer them into doing it?  Maybe say, "I bought this phone and it does the CRAZIEST thing when I drop it in the base.  Just watch this!"  If a dumb teen girl was working, she probably wouldn't be suspicious of that.

This is a 5.8 GHz phone which should get a range of 300 to 2000 feet.  I'm not sure if I could take it outside the store, but even if I was stuck inside the store I could just walk around taking calls for the store and I doubt I'd be noticed.  I bet if I didn't abuse it nonstop, it would last forever.  Or until they upgrade their cordless phone at least.

[MIB]

So basically you can set your cordless to pick incoming calls to the electronic department and mess with the customers ala the Movie Theater and Auto Parts Store?

I think you should do it. Put it in the next PLA Radio episode.

Edit To Add: If their cordless can be use to get on the intercom can your phone do the same after it's synced with their base set? Think Fred Meyers. 

MIB

[rbcp]

Edit To Add: If their cordless can be use to get on the intercom can your phone do the same after it's synced with their base set? Think Fred Meyers. 

Yes, if they use their phones to get on the intercom then I could do that.  But as far as I know, Target doesn't use their phones to get on the intercom.  When I worked there they were completely separate systems.  Who knows, though, maybe things have changed.  I'll see if I can do this this weekend.

Wonder if I could just trade handsets with them.  That would be slightly quicker than waiting 5 seconds for mine to sync.  But then I guess I could be charged with shoplifting if they caught me.

[rbcp]

Any ideas on what I should say if an employee walks over and catches me with my handset in their cradle?  (That sounds dirty.)  I'm thinking I'll claim that I brought the handset in to buy a new battery for it, but I wasn't sure if I brought the correct handset in so I wanted to set it in the charger to confirm that I had the one with the dead battery in it.

I'm open to better ideas though.

[tully]

bring a friend and have the electronics guy (usually only 1) follow your friend to another isle out of view, if someone else comes up and sees u putting the phone in the dock just say oops i knocked this off, if they persist just grab it and run, or bash them in the face with it.

[SloFuze]

It's going to get crowded in the store with xmas shoppers soon, might not be too hard with all of that distraction.

[rbcp]

Today I went into Target with my kitchen phone, hoping to register my phone with them.  I stood at the digital camera display, eying their cordless phone for a minute and waiting for the guy to leave.  It was really busy and would have been easy.  But then I suddenly realized that the cordless phone wasn't sitting in the base unit.  It was sitting in an additional charging unit.  To register a handset, you need to put your phone into the main base part that has the phone line plugged into it.  I looked around and there's no sign of that part of the phone so it must be in a cabinet.

At the other register they have another Uniden phone but it's a different model.  It looks pretty old and I couldn't find it for sale on their shelves.  But I'm guessing that Uniden would work similarly to the other - my handset would need to be set into the base unit which I can't find.

So my idea was a stupid failure.  I guess it's a good thing I noticed this before trying it, or it would have been for nothing.  Maybe tomorrow I'll check out the electronics section at Wal-Mart and see if they're using any cordless phones.

[JD716]

Are you sure it wasn't one of those phones that doesn't include the answering machine so the base looks just like another charging dock? And what would happen if you tried to pick up your phone in Target without placing it in the base first.