Well, it’s one way to score a hot ride for the weekend.
A clever crook told a gullible garage attendant he was an auto-body worker and needed to pick up the shiny black Maserati parked inside — and the worker just handed over the keys, police sources said yesterday.
“I took the car and drove it for two days,” alleged thief James Wolf, 22, admitted to police, according to court records.
Wolf went to the Quick Park Garage on Desbrosses Street in Tribeca on Friday afternoon and told manager Charles Mercier that he had permission to drive the car to Formula One Auto Collision in Long Island City, Queens, for servicing, the sources said.
But Wolf left out one important detail — he was recently fired from the shop, where the Maserati GranTurismo had apparently been serviced in the past.
Mercier bought the story and gave over the keys to the $130,000 sports car, the sources said.
Wolf sped away for the weekend, but his alleged joyride came to an abrupt end Monday when NYPD detectives tracked him down.
The car had sustained minor damage to a door and the fender, sources said.
The Maserati’s owner, Donald Lemastus, 52 — who lives in the Truffles Tribeca building above the garage — discovered his ride was gone late Friday after frantically searching for the car with an employee.
Yesterday, he tried to play down the whole ordeal.
“It was no big deal. He took my car, and they got it back,” he said.
“I’m happy the car has been returned,” he added. “It has a little bit of damage, but I’m taking that up with the building.”
Formula One Auto Collision told cops it had fired Wolf on July 30 for an unspecified reason.
When asked about Wolf by a Post reporter, workers at the Queens shop played dumb and pretended they didn’t know who he was.
At his Manhattan arraignment, prosecutors asked for $2,500 bail, but a judge released Wolf on his own recognizance.
Wolf’s attorney did not return a call for comment.
Additional reporting by Laurel Babcock