Like a comic-book villain transformed by a tragic accident, Weigman discovered at an early age that his acute hearing gave him superpowers on the telephone. He could impersonate any voice, memorize phone numbers by the sound of the buttons and decipher the inner workings of a phone system by the frequencies and clicks on a call, which he refers to as “songs.” The knowledge enabled him to hack into cellphones, order phone lines disconnected and even tap home phones. “Man, it felt pretty powerful for a little kid,” he says. “Anyone said something bad about me, and I’d press a button, and I’d get them.”
But in the end, those close to Weigman feared that his gift would prove to be his downfall. “Matt never intended on becoming the person he became,” says Jeff Daniels, a former phreaker who befriended Weigman on a chat line. “When you’re a blind little tubby bald kid in a broke-ass family, and you have that one ability to make yourself feel good, what do you expect to happen?”
– Del artículo “The boy who heard too much” de la Rolling Stone, acerca de un batillo de 16 años que dominaba el teléfono por sus súper-habilidades auditivas. Hacía bromas, extorsionaba, “hackeaba” y se metía de lleno con compañías de teléfono y hasta con el FBI.
