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ATTACK ON MAILMAN

It was the letter recipient who went postal, cops said.

Police grabbed a resident of a swanky Upper West Side building for trying to snatch a letter from a mail carrier and injuring him, authorities said yesterday.

Michael Raspantini, 27, asked postal worker George Negron, 41, to open the mailboxes in the West 84th Street building because he claimed he had forgotten his key, the carrier said.

After Raspantini showed him ID, “he reached over me into someone else’s mailbox,” according to Negron.

“He rushed me. I put my hands up and he grabbed my thumb and bent it back until he broke it,” he said.

Raspantini “went berserk,” Negron said, adding, “He was well dressed. He looked like someone you would trust.”

After the struggle spilled out onto the street, residents called cops.

“I really appreciate the people on 84th Street who came to my rescue,” Negron said.

The father of two from The Bronx said he might have to get pins inserted into his thumb.

“I could be out of work for a while,” he said.

Raspantini was charged with assault.