A 24-year-old Midtown receptionist outsmarted a career criminal and even outdid the cops investigating his alleged thieving — thanks to her addiction to “Law & Order: SVU.”
Justine Faeth, an executive assistant at City Lights Media, was in the company’s lobby at 6 E. 39th St. on June 15 when smooth-talking ex-con Kevin Moore, 50, walked in at around 1:30 p.m., authorities say.
Moore distracted Faeth by asking for a glass of water, and after drinking half of it, blew his nose in a tissue, put the rag in the paper cup and left it on the front desk, she said.
Unbeknownst to Faeth, Moore had allegedly swiped an iPod, cellphone and wallet before fleeing out a back door.
After realizing what had happened, Faeth said, she remembered her favorite TV show — and turned into a real-life version of its heroine, Detective Olivia Benson (played by Mariska Hargitay).
“When they are trying to get DNA from a suspect on ‘SVU’ and that person is unwilling to give them a sample, they trick them into drinking water and then use that as evidence,” Faeth told The Post yesterday.
“I knew to save the cup at least for fingerprints — the show taught me that,” she said. “It’s amazing what you can learn on a TV show.”
So the worker said she made sure the cup remained set aside until the cops came.
But Faeth said she was shocked when uniformed officers weren’t interested in her evidence, telling the amateur sleuth that they do DNA tests only for murder and rape cases because of lack of funding.
So Faeth tossed the cup and tissue in the garbage.
Then the next day, after reviewing surveillance footage from the building, detectives from the Midtown South Precinct asked Faeth if she still had the cup and tissue, she said.
Fortunately, the cleaning crew had not collected her trash.
After running the DNA collected from it through their database, cops got a match with Moore, who was in their system from his past crimes, authorities said.
“I was really disappointed when they refused to take it at first, but at least they got him in the end,” Faeth said.
Moore — suspected of pulling off as many as 10 similar robberies — was busted Aug. 21 and charged with burglary and grand larceny, according to a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Police officials said it was unclear if the uniformed cops had told Faeth they could not take the evidence.
“We do not know that the officer said that,” Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.
Either way, Faeth clearly helped nab Moore, whose thievery dates to the early 1980s.
In his latest alleged string of robberies, Moore hit the Alvin Ailey Dance Studio, where cops say he pretended to inquire about lessons.
Moore has also been charged with a July 15 robbery at Boom Fitness, a Park Avenue gym.
After taking a tour of the pricey gym, Moore returned, sneaked back into the office and grabbed a wallet and cellphone, law-enforcement sources said.
Moore first went to prison for burglary in 1983 and was convicted again in 1988, 1989, 1995, and 2003, according to the Department of Correction’s Web site.
Faeth said she was pleased her cop-show obsession led to some actual crime fighting.
Although she watches many police dramas, she said “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” is her favorite.
“It’s pretty addicting. I pretty much have seen every episode,” she said. “It’s intense, the story lines are good, and there are a lot of twist and turns.”