Cops who busted a dumb-as-chum crook suspected of trying to steal an ATM won’t have trouble finding the loot from his previous heists — he used his one call from the station house to contact a friend and blurt out: “Get all of the cash out from my mattress!” sources said yesterday.
The bizarre saga — which included a dip in the East River — began when Valentin Garcia attempted to swipe the cash machine outside a store at 23 Rutgers St. on the Lower East Side by knocking it from its foundation with his van, the sources said.
As Garcia rammed the vehicle into the money-filled prize at 3 a.m. Tuesday, astounded witnesses phoned cops — and Garcia, realizing the jig was up, fled on foot, cops said.
Garcia, 31, of Queens, ran out of room as he sprinted two blocks down Rutgers Street, running smack into the river, authorities said.
But that didn’t stop him — he jumped into the cold, dark waters and tried to swim for it, sources said.
He was soon spotted by crews aboard harbor patrol boats and police helicopters, and fished out. Once in custody, he spluttered: “I was not in the van. I don’t know anything about ATM machines,” a law-enforcement source said.
Later, during his one allowed phone call, Garcia was allegedly overheard making a desperate plea to save the cash he allegedly ripped off in previous crimes.
“911!” he allegedly shouted into a phone. “Get all of the cash out from my mattress!”
In addition to Thursday’s ATM theft, Garcia is also believed to be responsible for a similar heist on April 12 at 352 W. 52nd St.
In that theft, the bandit was caught on video using a van that looked like the one Garcia drove April 21 — a white Ford.
In the video of the uptown theft, the driver plowed into the machine several times and then put it into the back of the van. The driver in the video resembles Garcia, cops said.
Garcia is also the prime suspect in a rash of other knock-over ATM thefts around the city in December and January.
Garcia was arraigned yesterday on grand-larceny and other charges, and held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
His father, Valentin Garcia Sr., 55, said he has disowned him.
“I separated myself from him 15 years ago,” he said. “I don’t want to know anything he does, because I don’t want any trouble. If you have one finger that’s bad, you cut it off. If you don’t, the others will go bad.”