Secure guard for coin-return-bucket window of payphone guard wrap

Abstract

An anti-vandalizing device prevents removal of the coin-return bucket through the coin-retrieval window of the lower-housing cover of a coin-operated telephone while still accommodating coin vault security involving use of one key by the coin collector and of a differently coded key for the upper housing by the maintenance person responsible for fixing the bucket in the lower housing. A guard ring mounted inside an aligned window of a guard wrap reduces the effective size of the guard wrap window to where the bucket cannot be retrieved therethrough even after being crushed against the anti-rocking screw while still accommodating user coin retrieval of his unused deposited coins. The guard ring is slidably mounted on the back side of the guard wrap so as to be retrievable from above in the space between the lower housing cover and the guard wrap when the upper housing is removed. In one embodiment a ridge about the perimeter of an installed guard ring window seats within the guard wrap window. Deep slide brackets enable pivotal movement of the upper end of the guard ring to enable its ridge to clear the wrap about its window. A spacer plate behind the guard ring is inserted within the deep slide brackets to hold the guard ring with its ridge seated in the wrap window. In a second embodiment, brackets depending from the inside surface of the guard ring hold the ring in the guard wrap window along with a headed stud on the inside surface of the wrap seating a locking plate having slots receiving headed studs on the upper end of the guard ring.