1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to a guard that prevents the destruction and vandalism of the vault of a pay telephone. Specifically, this invention is a vault guard that prevents the vandalism of a pay telephone vault by prohibiting a potential vandal from gaining the leverage necessary to pry out the door of the vault.
Over a prolonged period of time, a large amount of coin money is retained within the vault of a pay telephone. Due to their normally isolated and unprotected location, pay telephones are the subject of frequent vandalism attempts. Vandals use a variety of means to gain access to the pay telephone vaults, including drilling through the telephone housing and/or detonating an explosion on the pay telephone lower housing.
A large percentage of vandals also attempt to forceably pry the vault door from the lower housing of the pay telephone so as to access the coin money within the telephone vault. Vandals typically insert a pry bar into the gap between the vault door and the lower housing and exert an outward force in the direction normal to the pay telephone. The outward force exerted by the pry bar shears or bends the locking mechanism of the vault door thereby removing the vault door and leaving the vault open for the vandal. The present invention is concerned with preventing this last type of vandalism, namely the removal of a pay telephone vault door by use of a pry bar.
2. Related Art
Several inventions aimed to prevent the vandalism of pay telephone vaults are known to the prior art. Illustrative of such inventions are U.S. Pat. No. 5,155,765 issued to McGough; U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,476 issued to Ohayon; U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,057 issued to Anello et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,917 issued to Anello et al.
The Ohayon ""476 Patent teaches a two-part armor, one part for the upper housing and one part for the lower housing. The lower housing armor part includes an opening for the vault door and an opening for the coin return box. The lower housing armor also includes a removable plate that is attached to the vault door. Likewise, the ""765 Patent discloses a lower housing armor having one armored element that is attached to the vault door. The Anello ""057 Patent and the Anello ""917 Patent teach one part and two part armors, respectively, that completely cover the pay telephone vault door.
These patents are exemplary of the typical telephone armors currently placed on a large number of pay telephones. Some of these armors, although making the overall pay telephone structure much more rigid and sturdy, still allow a vandal to insert a pry bar into the gap between the vault door and the lower housing and exert a force which removes the vault door from the lower housing. In addition, all of these armors are constructed from a substantial quantity of metal material and are thus relatively expensive and time-consuming to manufacture.
It would thus be beneficial to the prior art to provide a vault guard that prevents a vandal from prying out the vault door from the lower housing of a pay telephone.
The prior art would also benefit from a vault guard that is relatively inexpensive and simple to manufacture.
The pay telephone armors described herein are also somewhat difficult to install. Some of the armors include a plurality of interfitting parts. Other armors require that some of the parts of the pay telephone first be disassembled (such as the receiver, etc.) prior to the installation of the actual armor. The actual armor then fits between such parts and the lower housing of the pay telephone.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to the prior art to provide a vault guard that can be installed quickly and easily.
Accordingly, the objectives of this invention are to provide, inter alia, a new and improved pay telephone vault guard that:
prevents a vandal from prying out the vault door from the lower housing of a pay telephone;
is relatively inexpensive and simple to manufacture; and
can be installed quickly and easily.
Other objects of the invention will become apparent from time to time throughout the specification hereinafter disclosed.
To achieve such improvements, my inventions is a guard for preventing the vandalism of the vault and vault door of a pay telephone, comprising a plurality of rigid segments. Each rigid segment includes an attachment end and a free end, defining a perpendicular distance therebetween. Each of the rigid segments is attached at its attachment end to the lower housing of the pay telephone immediately adjacent and substantially surrounding the vault door. In the preferred embodiment, the plurality of rigid segments comprise one integral rigid member. The guard changes the leverage point of the pry bar of a vandal so as to prohibit such vandal from forceably removing the vault door. The leverage point is changed from proximate the vault door to the free end of a rigid segment or integral rigid member.