Billy's Antiques Got Subway Signs Fair and Square, Says Owner

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Over the weekend, Billy Leroy of Billy's Antiques on the Bowery was busted for selling subway signs. Now, Leroy tells the New York Daily News that the signs were from a legitimate source: An MTA subcontractor who sold them to him for $3000. "He was supposed to dispose of the signs, and he disposed them to me," Leroy told the NYDN, adding "I don't send an army of crackheads into the subway to unbolt signs." Got that? This is one antiques dealer who does not command an army of crackheads.

It sounds like we were right about the Law-&-Order–style interrogation, by the way. According to Leroy, the cops told him that they wouldn't put him in handcuffs if he revealed his source. But they went back on their word, he says, cuffing him and questioning him until he broke down and turned in his subway sign dealer. Gosh, that sounds like it would make his army of crackheads angry. If they existed. Which they don't. Because as Billy pointed out, he definitively does not command an army of crackheads, and we have no idea why you would suspect otherwise.
· STOP! Beloved Bowery antiques dealer nabbed with street, MTA signs [NYDN]
· Last Stop for Subway Signs at Billy's Antiques on the Bowery [Racked NY]