First, his tiger was taken, and now Antoine Yates is wondering what happened to his money, jewelry and animal manifesto – detailing his “Garden of Eden” fantasies.
Yates returned yesterday for the first time to his Harlem apartment where he kept the Siberian-Bengal mix that attacked him last Wednesday.
Cops escorted him in after a housing court approved his eviction. But Yates, 37, left distraught, claiming $7,000 in cash, thousands in jewelry, and manuscripts that described his vision of a perfect animal planet had allegedly disappeared – and that police left the apartment in shambles.
“It looks like a tornado hit,” his attorney Raymond L. Colon said. “It was obviously torn apart by human hands.”
One investigator countered that Yates “had a tiger living in his apartment. It wasn’t the Taj Majal.”
An NYPD source dismissed accusations that Yates’ possessions were swiped and that the apartment was trashed.
Colon said detectives searched Yates’ apartment yesterday for a second time, looking for evidence that he was dealing in wild and exotic animals.
Yates denies the charge. He also contests that he hasn’t paid rent since January.
A housing court yesterday found Yates had not paid rent and didn’t provide necessary documentation to take the apartment as his own once his mother, the original tenant, had left.
“A judgment was entered against Mr. Yates in Housing Court [yesterday] and limited access to the apartment is being arranged by the DA’s office,” said New York City Housing Authority spokesman Howard Marder.
Ming seemed to have a better day than his former owner yesterday.
The 250-pound tiger was moved to an Ohio sanctuary and may be finding that farm living is the life for him.
The tiger is settling quite nicely into his Noah’s Lost Ark home in the town of Berlin Center, experts there told The Post.
Ming has become more acclimated to his new surroundings, becoming less aggressive to men who walked near his cage and forgoing the growling and threatening jumps unleashed on previous days.
Instead, “he was rolling on his back and that means he’s happy,” said sanctuary director Ellen Whitehouse.
Ming’s blood tests came back and he was given a clean bill of health, meaning he’ll be moved to a larger 50-foot-by-50-foot pen within the week.
With Post Wire Services