Metro

Starbucks barista helped nab ‘Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker’

ELIZABETH, NJ — Life on the run for the Internet sensation known as “Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker” ended when he asked for a cup of coffee.

Authorities are crediting an employee at a Starbucks in Philadelphia with recognizing 24-year-old Caleb “Kai” McGillvary, who was wanted in the beating death of a 73-year-old New Jersey lawyer.

Authorities say McGillvary met the lawyer, Joseph Galfy Jr., in New York, and the pair went to Galfy’s home. Days later, Galfy was found dead.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey says the barista waited on McGillvary on Thursday, recognized him and called 911. McGillvary took off before police arrived.

An officer went to a nearby bus terminal and found McGillvary. He was arrested there.

McGillvary earned his nickname after intervening in a February attack in California. He awaits extradition on charges in Galfy’s death.

McGillvary is being held in lieu of $3 million bail.

He and Galfy met in Times Square Saturday and returned to Galfy’s Clark, NJ, home where McGillvary spent the night, said prosecutor Theodore Romankow.

Galfy was bludgeoned to death at some point Sunday night, prosecutors said, and on Monday McGillvary was seen taking a train to Asbury Park, NJ.

In a graphic Facebook message posted Tuesday morning, McGillvary suggested that he had been drugged and raped.

“What would you do if you woke up with a groggy head, metallic taste in your mouth, in a strangers house . . . and started wretching, realizing that someone had drugged, raped . . . you?” the posting said.

When a fan responded he would “SUH-MASH the s–t out of them with a hatchet,” McGillvary wrote, “i like your idea.”

Galfy’s body was found Monday morning, when co-workers told police he hadn’t come to work. His neighbors said he was single and gay.

Officials said McGillvary met up with a female “fan” after the murder. His long hair had been cut short and he now has a facial tattoo.

McGillvary’s movements after that included a trip to Glassboro in South Jersey and Philadelphia.

He was considered armed and dangerous because “in the past, he has demonstrated his ability to use the back end of a hatchet,” police said.

In an interview with Vice magazine, McGillvary recounted getting into a fight in a Venice Beach, Calif., bar restroom last month and beating a man so badly that he looked like he needed surgery.

With Frank Rosario, Selim Algar, and Lia Eustachewich