Well, I would't want him for a neighbour, but I can't help admiring the optimistic dedication of this nut. Anyone feel like writing a song about it? (Apparently he told the hospital they were dog bites...):

Tiger taken from flat in New York

Reuters in New York
Monday October 6, 2003
The Guardian

Police and animal control officers removed a tiger and an alligator from a New York apartment after they were tipped off by neighbours.

Officials found the animals on Saturday in the home of 31-year-old Antoine Yates, who faces charges of reckless endangerment. A police sharpshooter fired a tranquilliser dart through the window of the fifth-floor flat to subdue the tiger, which weighed up to 225kg (500lb), according to a police spokesman.

Along with the tiger, believed to be a Siberian-Bengal mix, police found a metre-long (3ft) alligator.

Mr Yates was not on the premises when officers abseiled down the side of his building in their urban safari mission, but he was found at a Philadelphia hospital on Saturday night - receiving treatment for animal bites.

Philadelphia police were sent to make sure he did not leave the hospital until New York officers reached him to bring him back to Manhattan, a Philadelphia police spokesman said yesterday.

The animals were taken to an animal shelter and will eventually be sent to a zoo in Ohio.