A disgraced ex-cop convicted in the NYPD’s infamous “Dirty Thirty” scandal nearly two decades ago was busted yesterday for allegedly swiping a wad of cash from a woman in Chinatown, sources said.
Russel Litwenak, 68, claimed to be a cop when he pretended to come to the aid of a woman who’d already lost $3,000 to another thief, and cops are probing if the two crooks were in cahoots, the sources said.
The victim, a woman in her 40s identified as Shu Wang, told cops she reached into her purse for her cell phone about 1:05 p.m. on Canal Street near Chrystie Street and dropped a clear, plastic sandwich bag holding $3,000.
She said a man described only as Hispanic grabbed it claimed it was his when she demanded it back.
When he refused, she offered to pay him $100 to return the money, sources said.
But he demanded $1,500 and then fled into a building at 79 Chrystie St. after she refused.
The victim followed him inside, loudly shouting that she had been robbed and demanding her money back.
Litwenak, who was inside the building, identified himself as a cop as if he were there to help, the sources said.
But instead he snatched another $300 from her purse before he and the other thief ran out the door and across the street toward FDR park.
Good Samaritans held Litwenak and held him until cops arrived.
The original crook escaped and none of the cash was recovered, leading cops to suspect the pair may have acted together.
Litwenak was charged with second-degree robbery and criminal impersonation of a police officer.
Litwenak was one of the crooked cops assigned to 30th Precinct in Harlem in the early to mid 90s who were accused of robbing dealers and selling drugs.
Litwenak, whose last known address was on Kingsbridge Avenue in The Bronx – was arrested for breaking into an apartment during a robbery and later convicted of burglary.
A total of 33 cops – roughly one-sixth of the 30th Precincts force at the time- were busted in the scandal on perjury, robbery, burglary, assault and theft charges for robbing drugs, cash and guns from dealers in the early- and mid-1990s.
The scandal earned the precinct – in one of the city’s highest-crime neighborhoods at the time – the nickname the Dirty Thirty.