Maybe interesting toy in junk shop...

[Fred Cisin]

On Sat, 2 Jul 2016, Bill Sudbrink wrote:
> I was poking around a junk shop that I visit from time
> to time and I saw a toy.  It didn't really strike me as
> that interesting when I saw it but I've been wondering
> about it since I left the place this morning.  The
> thing was mostly red plastic with a cardboard bottom.  It
> had a two-prong AC cord and a four prong "old fashioned"
> telephone jack.  It had two big buttons and a spool of
> paper tape mounted on the front.  The tape was about 1/4
> inch wide.  I call it a toy because it had that sort of
> feel about it.  It was not clearly labeled as such.  It
> was also styled in a way that suggested late 1960s to me.
> The whole thing was the size of a small shoe box.  I
> can't find anything like it in google searches.  I wonder
> if it might have some early modem like device in it.  Does
> this description "ring a bell" with anyone?

an auto-dialer for an alarm system?

Was it punched tape (used as ROM)?
or blank tape with some sort of marker?