A dimwitted former Occupy Wall Street protester who apparently didn’t know the movement had died was busted near Union Square Monday after hitchhiking cross-country to try to rejoin his buddies in Zuccotti Park, The Post has learned.
Timothy Diedrich, 28, allegedly made the mistake of coming to town without registering as a sex offender, as he is required to do under federal law.
He was peddling hand-made trinkets near 14th Street and Fourth Avenue — and thoughtlessly posting Facebook selfies advertising his whereabouts — when US Marshals Service deputies nabbed him, according to a law-enforcement source.
Diedrich, who’s homeless and sometimes works as a carny, had copped a 2007 plea bargain in Iowa after being accused of forcibly raping a 15-year-old girl and snapping nude photos of the victim, the source said.
Diedrich was born in Oregon but claims to be a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin and often speaks with a fake Russian accent, the source added.
On Facebook, he calls himself Yuritchvic Putin and identifies himself as an OWS “medic.”
He also posted a series of updates on his recent trip from Wisconsin to New York, including how he arrived in the Big Apple on Dec. 14 and headed straight for Zuccotti Park, where cops had cleared out the OWS encampment more than two years ago.
On Sunday, Diedrich said he was “near Union Square hanging out with a homeless man named King.”
“I’m over by the Walgreens singing and ‘pan-handling’ with a real pan,” he wrote, helpfully.
He also called it a “truly interesting experience” and suggested others try it”just for the laughs.”
After his arrest, Diedrich was taken for hospital treatment of a foot injury he suffered while trudging through the snow in New Jersey last week, the source said.
He’s expected to appear in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.
Diedrich is the second ex-OWS protester busted by the Marshals Service in New York on sex-related charges.
Last year, Preston Laska, then 23, was picked up in Hell’s Kitchen on a kiddie-porn warrant from Wisconsin.