X

Did phone thieves crank Clinton?

Leslie Katz Former Culture Editor
Leslie Katz led a team that explored the intersection of tech and culture, plus all manner of awe-inspiring science, from space to AI and archaeology. When she's not smithing words, she's probably playing online word games, tending to her garden or referring to herself in the third person.
Credentials
  • Third place film critic, 2021 LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards
Leslie Katz

If Bill Clinton's been getting crank calls lately, he shouldn't assume it's Kenneth Starr on the other end. A better bet: pals of a Delray Beach, Fla., busboy who found singer Jimmy Buffett's cell phone outside a jazz club in late May. The Smoking Gun reports that the 22-year-old told police his buddies may have crank-called the former prez, whose number was stored in the $500 phone's directory.

According to a column in Thursday's Palm Beach Post, the address book contained a number of other high-profile entries, including Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Bill Gates, Harrison Ford and George Clooney.

After rejecting pleas for the phone's return by Buffett and his wife (and a $200 reward offer), the now-fired busboy finally surrendered the item when cops and a U.S. Secret Service agent showed up at his home on Saturday.

But there may be more crank calls on the way. Apparently, the fancy phone's memory card with the names, numbers and some addresses of big-deal Buffett pals is still MIA.