It pays to strip down and stand up.
A woman is expecting a $15,000 payout from the city after the NYPD arrested her for getting completely naked in Times Square.
Zoe West, 22, of Kingston, N.Y., was cuffed after artist Andy Golub applied body paint over her exposed flesh in front of spectators in Times Square last summer.
She slipped out of her G-string for the finishing touches, but was hauled away in handcuffs by the NYPD and put in the back of a “chilly” police van, according to West. She said she knew being arrested was a possibility, but it still came as a surprise.
“There was a moment of terror,” West told Metro. “I just tried to calm myself and go with it.”
She added, “It was surreal. I’ve never been arrested before and although I have done plenty of nude modeling, being nude in the back of a police van is something I can’t really compare to anything else.”
After two hours, she was released without charges — though, according to her attorney Ron Kuby, several officers gawked at her at the precinct before she was allowed to dress.
Kuby, a civil rights attorney, argued that West’s arrest was wrongful because it is legal to be nude in public in New York City for a performance or art exhibition.
“It’s a rap on the knuckles of the police, some of whom get a little overly frisky when they see a naked girl,” Kuby said.
Kuby said the city is forking over the $15,000, but the NYPD hasn’t issued any kind of apology for falsely arresting West.
“We say in the Bronx, $15K is 15,000 ‘I’m sorrys,'” Kuby told Metro. “I don’t expect a warm note with the cold cash.” 
West said she plans to invest the money or save it for her future. She is moving to Manhattan in October. Although she is still modeling and acting, West said she isn’t sure she would ever get fully nude for an exhibition in public again.
“I really don’t know,” she said. “I really am not into getting arrested a second time. I suppose it would have to be the right occasion.”
Here is some NSFW video of West being painted before her arrest.
