It was coffee with a side of chaos yesterday for a dopey Highway Patrol officer who left his marked SUV idling outside a Bronx diner — only to helplessly watch it speed away with a disturbed cop-wannabe behind the wheel.
“Somebody took my van, son of a bitch!” Officer Nelson Robles, a 15-year NYPD veteran, screamed as the Chevy Tahoe disappeared up Cruger Avenue in Morris Park.
The cop dropped his java and darted out of Lydig Coffee House as the 7:30 a.m. nightmare unfolded.
“All of a sudden, I see a cop come out of the restaurant running. He was going crazy,” said Sammy Obaid, an employee at a nearby deli. “He was on the phone, making calls. He was freaked out.”
“He was looking down the block to see where the guy went,” said Robles’ pal Michael Kwas. “He could see the guy turn right.”
Robles jumped in Kwas’ van to give chase — but they lost track of it and soon returned to the diner.
Twenty minutes later, two rookie Port Authority officers found the SUV parked in the lower level of the US Airways terminal at La Guardia.
They soon found Anibal Lugo inside, talking on a phone to a rental-car agency.
He was apparently living out a police fantasy — dressed in an NYPD shirt and rubber gloves, with handcuffs dangling from his waist and a clipboard and police ID scanner he had taken from Robles’ vehicle.
At first Lugo, 48, who had a stack of $100 bills on him, said, “Oh, you got me.” But because of his dress, the PA officers asked him if he was a cop.
“Are you on the job?” one of them asked. Lugo said, “Yes.”
He later admitted he wasn’t a cop, and told the PA officers they did a good job busting him.
Officers also found in the bathroom a duffel bag filled with Lugo’s family photos and CDs.
Sources said he didn’t touch a shotgun locked in the SUV.
Lugo was charged with possession of stolen property, grand larceny and impersonating a police officer. He was taken to Jacobi Hospital for observation, sources said.
Robles has been suspended without pay.
He told investigators he left the SUV idling because it was cold outside, sources said.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona,
Georgett Roberts and Todd Venezia