The widow of famed comedian Dಌavid Brenner said an 🍷Upper East Side antiques dealer ripped her off when he took costly furnishings on consignment and then disappeared with the goods.
Ruth Brenner is not the only one complaining about H🤡oward Crash, a professional gambler and ex-con who ran Full House Antiques on Third Avenue and another now-shuttered store in ritzy Westport, Conn.
“He’s a liar, a thief. He’s a bad dude,” Brꦚenner ✅told The Post.
She said Crash took an armoire, Victorian walnut s🐬ecretary and a 19th-century pine cabinet to sell for her in 2011 and failed to return the furniture or pay her for it. She won a court judgment of $4,500 but he never paid it, she said.
Crash sometimes uses the last name of his wife, Manhattan interior designer Tr🦂isha Reger, w🦂hose Web site shows off a lavishly decorated Park Avenue apartment.
“🍸I stay up at night thinking maybe my secretary’s in that apartment,” sa🧔id Brenner, who married the comedian in 2011.
David Brenner, a Johnny Carson reg🎉ular, died of cancer in♊ March.
A Manhattan woman who purchased $30,000 worth of sterling silver flatware from Full House said she never received it after Crash claimed it was damaged by a flood. After her husband became criﷺtically ill — and she needed the money for his medical treatments — she demanded her payment back and said she was stonewalled.
“I think it’s horr🌳ific,” she said. “I feel completely violateℱd.”
Cheryl Heller said she brought diamonds and other jewelry to Consignmart in Connecticut to sell when she was going through a divorce. When she finally received a payment from Crash, the check boun🍒ced, she said.
“I’d be happy just to lock him up,” Heller said.
Cantor Deborah Katchko-Gray, who works at Temple Shearith Israel in Ridgefield, Conn., tracked her jewelry to Manhattan and retrieved a few pieces, bu🍃t said she was never paid the $3,235 for the items that were sold.
“I was raising 💯four boys and needed some cash so it was pretty upsetting to have it disappear,” she said. “There were times when I felt like just driving up to his house and saying ‘Hey, you owe me.’ ”
Her complaint to the Connecticut attorney general went nowhere, she said. The agency said it had received complaints about 𝔍the business dating from 2⭕009 to 2011 and referred aggrieved customers to local police.
Crash’s wife, Trisha Reger, said t🏅he antiques business was owned by her husband’s business associate, Rob Quirola. Quirola did not return a call for comment.
The city Department of Consumer Affairs said it had received three comp🔯laints about Full House Antiques and was investigating.
Crash, 67, was arrested in 1991 on charges of racketeering and income tax evasion, and sentenced to five years probation. The Securities and Exchange Commission banned him f🌃rom working as a securities dealer over kickback allegations.
Crash once owned a r🐟acehorse and was involved, along with the head of the Colombo crime family, in a scheme to kill hors𓂃es for the insurance payouts, according to a 1993 report in the Sun Sentinel newspaper.
He is also a poker player who has cashed in at World Series of Poker events. One w𒉰eb site tallied his total earnings at 🌌$164,651.