A resident at a posh Upper East Side co-op saved his Christmas tip for cops this year — dropping a dime on his allegedly crooked doorman.
Liridon Zeqaj, 25, was charged with sneaking into the man’s apartment, stealing 10 blank checks and cashing them, authorities said yesterday.
Zeqaj allegedly used an extra key kept by the building to enter Kenneth Latham’s apartment in May.
He wrote $45,310 worth of checks, made them out to cash, and forged the victim’s signature, authorities said.
Then he slipped out of the apartment and strolled across the street to a Capital One Bank branch, where he deposited them in his own account, according to a Manhattan Criminal Court complaint.
Latham, 67, discovered the theft when he decided to carefully check out his apartment last month, after a board member told him that Zeqaj had been shown the door for allegedly stealing from another tenant.
When Latham discovered his checks were missing, he went to the cops, who busted the doorman this week after an investigation.
Police were still probing the reported heist at the other tenant’s apartment.
Zeqaj was charged with burglary, identity theft and grand larceny, and his bail was set at $10,000.
His attorney, Dawn Florio, described him as a polite young man who lives with his parents and has no criminal background.
“They knew each other very well,” Florio said, insisting her client and Latham had been close friends.
“The complainant has some health issues, and my client used to help him out a lot,” Florio said.
Florio refused to discuss the charges, except to say, “He was inside the apartment, and he had permission to be there.”
The employee opening doors at the building yesterday insisted the suspect is “a good guy.”
Additional reporting by Gillian Kleiman