Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Man Who Owned a Tiger in Harlem - The Antoine Yates story

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

This is the story of Antoine Yates and Ming the Tiger he kept in his Harlem apartment.

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After three months, plan auto renews and 1299 a month, terms apply. So this man, his name's Antoine. And one night, Antoine is rushed into the emergency room. He's in pain and he's bleeding. He has huge bite marks on him, mostly his arm and leg. And he tells them that he got attacked by a pit bull. But the doctors, they start examining his wounds and they get suspicious. Because these bite marks are awfully big to be coming from a pit bull.

So then what the hell attacked him? Now around this time, police, they get an anonymous tip, telling them that a wild animal must be on the loose in the city because they believe it had bit someone. And then they give the police the address to this apartment in Harlem. So police, they go to this apartment to investigate. And they can't get in. But, oddly, they can hear something inside, growling through the front door. And they're like, what the f is in here?

So they go to the neighbor's place and they get a drill and they drill tiny holes in the wall so that they can see into this apartment. And then they stick a camera through that hole, and that's when they see a 400-pound Siberian tiger just chilling in this New York apartment. So, how did this tiger get there? Well, let's go back to Antoine. Antoine is 31, he's a part-time taxi driver,

and he really loves animals. In fact, he loves animals so much that one day he illegally buys a lion cub and a tiger cub from an exotic animal trainer in Minnesota, and then he brings them back to New York to live with him in his public housing apartment in Harlem. Now, in this apartment, Antoine already has a five-foot-long Cayman living there with him, named Owl. And so, I guess he also now has a lion and a tiger. What could possibly go wrong?

Now, the lion was apparently sick when Antoine bought him, so he doesn't live very long in the apartment before he, unfortunately, passes away. But the tiger cub, he doesn't die. In fact, Antoine raises him there in that apartment, and he names him Ming. And he gives Ming his own room, and he builds him a sandbox to play in. He bottle feeds him until he can graduate to solid food. And they become best friends. And then three years go by. And Ming is no longer a cup.

He's now a 400-pound fully-grown Siberian tiger. And he's still living in this public housing Harlem apartment with Antoine and Al. And he's so big, Antoine is allegedly feeding him. 20 pounds of chicken a day. Because yeah, tigers eat a lot. Now you would think this would go horribly wrong. Like a man and a huge tiger secretly living in an apartment together? But no, so far it all seems to be going fine.

Until. One day, Antoine finds an abandoned house cat outside his door. So, being the animal lover that he is, he brings it in and he adopts him. And he names him Shadow, and he gives Shadow his own room, away from Ming. And then, about a week later, Antoine and Ming, they're wrestling, because I guess that's how they normally play together. And Shadow just happens to get out of his room. And Ming catches one glimpse of him and he just snaps right into wild animal mode.

And he just leaps into action and he starts chasing Shadow around the place, trying to catch him and destroy him. And Antoine, he thinks fast and he throws himself in front of Ming and between him and Shadow. And then Ming ends up tackling Antoine. And Antoine clings to him to keep him from chasing Shadow. And that is when Ming grabs a hold of Antoine's neck and bites down. And then he bites his arm and then he locks on to his knee. And there he doesn't let go. So there he is, Antoine, with his knee in this Siberian tiger's mouth.

And it stays there for about three minutes before Ming finally lets him go. And then Ming goes and he hides in the bathroom because he knows he's in trouble. He's a bad kitty. But Antoine, he's hurt really bad. So he calls paramedics. And they rush him to the hospital. And that is where he lies and tells them he was attacked by a pit bull. Because he's worried they're going to find out about Ming,

and then they're going to come and take his tiger away. So anyway, back to the police. Police are in the neighbor's apartment, and they look through the hole that they had drilled in the neighbor's wall. And they see a fully grown tiger just chilling there. So officers are like, holy shit. And they have to get together and come up with a plan to get this 400-pound beast out of this apartment without getting eaten.

So here's what they come up with. Police has one of the officers repel down the side of the building with a tranquilizer Piu-Pew and he repels down until he gets to the apartment. And there, at the window, he looks in and he spots Ming. So he aims his tranquilizer Piu-Pu through the bars of the window and then boom. He shoots Ming with a dart right in the butt. And as you could probably guess, Ming, he doesn't like that so much. So he gets pissed off and he gets up and he charges at the window and he slams up against it.

And at that very moment, someone snaps a photo. And you can see the officer dangling there. And Ming, Ming is coming for his ass. But eventually, luckily, Ming does pass out from the tranquilizer. And police, they go into Antoine's apartment and they remove him and out and they relocate both of them. And then, of course, bam, they arrest Antoine. And I don't have his mug shot, but here's a picture of him in real life. And he gets charged with reckless endangerment and possession of a wild animal.

And he goes to court and he's found guilty and he's sentenced to five months in prison. So, then what happened to all his? his animals. Well, luckily, Shadow survived. He actually did not get eaten. Here's a picture of Antoine holding him. And Al, the Cayman, he was actually rehoused to a proper animal sanctuary over in Indiana. And Ming? Well, Ming was also relocated to an animal sanctuary, one in Ohio, that houses a lot of other big cats. And there, he had lots of room to run around and play. He had a place to swim, and he had lots of tiger friends. And Ming actually lived there until he was 19, which is old in tiger years.

And then, unfortunately, he passed away from natural causes.