The Academy Records Annex, which moved from Williamsburg to Greenpoint, had apparently left behind a ton of vinyl behind... which is currently being dumped outside of their old North 6th shop. It is just the saddest sight! We were told by a tipster this morning that a "clean up crew is throwing away the remaining records [that were] found inside." It's not impossible that some of these records are/were in good shape, so if you are leisurely enjoying your day in Williamsburg, drop by (and grab us Billy Nicholls "Would You Believe" if you see it, please).

We reached out to the the Annex (now located at 85 Oak Street in Greenpoint) to find out WHAT GIVES, and we will update if we hear back.

UPDATE: Around 2 p.m. Jenny Weinbloom sent us some photos from the scene, noting that things got crazy, you guys:

"When I got there (less than one hour after your original article), there was one record collector scrounging in the dumpster, two digging from the outside, and two pairs on the sidewalk looking through the records they had pulled. A minute or two after I got there, a guy from the dumpster company started yelling for the collector to get out of the dumpster. The collector refused, eventually suggesting that the guy call the cops if he needs him out. The guy from the dumpster company jumped into the dumpster and got up in the collector's face, about to start a fight. As it was about to get physical, someone else from his team came running out and got both guys out of the dumpster. Immediately, the company started tarping and tying down the dumpster while the few remaining collectors asked why and continued to dig. I managed to snag a huge number of 78s in the final moments before the tarp got sealed and and as I loaded them into my bag one of the more vocal collectors started yelling at the dumpster company 'This is a disgrace! This girl is trying to rescue records that might be 100 years old and you're locking them up to land them in the dump! This is our history you're destroying!'"

Meanwhile, while Academy Records hasn't responded to our messages, they did Tweet, claiming these records were "lousy" anyway:

Hey @Gothamist - Those are the lousy records we left behind 5 months ago when we moved out. — Academy Records NYC (@AcademyRecords) February 20, 2014

UPDATE II: Mike Davis, owner of Academy Records, has responded. He confirms they aren't the ones tossing the old vinyl, it's likely the new tenant or landlord. He tells us, "I know people get really excited when they see a dumpster full of records, but these are just the ones that weren't worth schlepping to our new spot. There are undoubtedly some decent records in there somewhere, but it would probably take a lot of work to find them!" He added, "Despite what the outraged people in the comments section seem to think, records can't be recycled or melted down to make new records (a practice abandoned by labels decades ago due to poor quality and defects)."