The owner of Billy’s Antiques and Props on E. Houston was hauled off in cuffs after more than a decade hawking subway signs in his store. Yesterday around 11 a.m. a swarm of NYPD officers accessed the establishment with bolt cutters, reported Young Manhattanite. According to Billy Leroy, who was released 8 hours later, they came for the subway signs sold in his junk shop. “Sadly I think it is the end of the subway signs at Billy's,” he said in an email to NYC the Blog, adding that “My question to the MTA is why did they act now and not 12 years ago, but all this will be played out in court."
Billy says when he first started stocking the signs, the police gave him some trouble. "A van full of cops pulled up and asked "hey buddy where did you get those signs?" We put them on the phone with our source, a subcontractor and maker of signs and they went away,” he explained. Over the years he kept selling them, keeping his supplier carefully guarded. “If I made it public then every shop would have them,” he said in a 2008 interview. He claimed they were legal, but was Billy really on the up and up?
Later on he responded to more questions from NYC the Blog, answering in the affirmative: "Yes they took all of them...and I am not selling any more signs...all of the signs where bought legitimately..." he wrote. We’ll see you in court, Mr. Leroy.
