Brooklyn slumlord Menachem Stark was shadowed for two weeks by his attackers — and one of them boldly lay in wait for him on a Williamsburg street for several hours before his violent, deadly abduction, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Newly released surveillance footage shows the thug parking the white Dodge Caravan with Ohio license plates that was used in the kidnapping and murder in front of 315 Rutledge St., just down the block from Stark’s real estate office, shortly before 5 pm on Jan. 2.
Stark was attacked, bound with duct-tape and thrown into the same van by two men shortly after 11:30 that night.
At one point after parking the van, the man can be seen leaving the vehicle and walking to the corner of Broadway and Rutledge, steps from Stark’s front door, before turning a corner and disappearing from the camera’s view.
“He was definitely casing the guy,’’ a source said of the thug, who is wearing a light-colored plaid jacket with a knit cap pulled down low over his head.
The man, who’s also wearing jeans and sneakers, comes back into the video frame a few minutes later, and returns to the van. He was still sitting there hours later, according to sources.
In more footage, captured the same night, the man is seen urinating behind a gate, sources said.
Investigators were planning to comb the scene to try find any DNA evidence left on the gate.
Witnesses have described the Caravan driver as white, of apparently European descent and between 5-foot-10 and 6 feet tall.
The new information comes as Stark’s family increased the reward Wednesday for information on his murder to $72,000.
The video is one of several examined by NYPD detectives since Stark’s charred body was found last week in a Great Neck dumpster.
Investigators have interviewed several witnesses who recalled seeing the parked van and were able to give a description of the driver.
The same man appears on other videos as far back as Dec. 19, sources said, lurking in Stark’s Williamsburg neighborhood.
Stark’s widow has told investigators she saw a minivan matching the description parked near the family’s home about a week before her husband was grabbed.
Cops are now combing toll booth surveillance videos, as well as auto repair shop and rental car records in hope of getting more information about the van.
It’s also possible that a third accomplice was inside the van the night Stark was snatched off the street, and served as the driver, sources said.
Public records show Stark and business partner Israel Perlmutter were deeply in debt, owing more than $40 million to creditors in defaults on borrowed money. Stark and his partner also owe more than $1 million to a loan shark, Perlmutter told police, according to a source.
Detectives are looking into the possibility Stark was targeted for a professional hit ordered by one of his many creditors, sources said.
Stark’s abduction was also caught on video, but the blinding snowstorm obscured his assailants’ faces and license plate.
Also Wednesday, frustrated cops said they believe they would have been able to stop the attackers before they left Brooklyn if they had been alerted earlier to Stark’s disappearance.
Stark’s brother-in-law reported him missing just before midnight to Shomrim, the neighborhood civilian patrol, after family members saw the video footage, relatives told The Post.
Shomrin did not tell the NYPD until nearly 2 a.m.
“They didn’t do Stark any favors by waiting,’’ said a law enforcement source. “I don’t know if we could have saved his life, but I will tell you that it’s unlikely that minivan would have made it out to Long Island. The weather was horrible that night. The LIE was closed. It would have been a real challenge for [the kidnappers] to get out there while we’re looking for them.’’
A Shomrim spokesman declined comment.