just an anecdote, but they're all over Portland. Just about every restaurant or coffee shop near any main urban thoroughfare has them. The shop owners will often refund the quarter for customers, but they do exist.<p>It's the private business owners (unethical..) way of dealing with a fairly huge homeless problem.<p>It's not just small places, either. A Target I happened upon had such coin devices on the bathroom door.<p>another anecdote : i've never witnessed as much (illegal) public urination in one spot. I watched a homeless man piss on a glass window with two indoor female onlookers at a Starbucks that was about 4 blocks from the convention center PyCon was being held at.<p>The absurdity of the act made me crack up, but I can't help but wonder, then and now, whether or not such absurd grotesque behavior is fueled partially by things like pay-bathrooms.