MANHATTAN — He should have kept his mouth shut.
A 22-year-old Harlem man was busted Wednesday for stealing an iPad from a NoLita store — right after asking cops why they were eyeing him for the crime, police said.
“Why are you guys looking at me like I just stole this iPad?” said the alleged thief, after cops saw the suspicious-looking man — iPad in hand — at the Bleecker Street subway station and moved in to make an arrest, the NYPD said.
Earlier the suspect, Kevin Chavis, swiped the pricey device off the counter of a shop on Mulberry Street between Spring and Prince streets before fleeing toward Houston Street, police said.
Police sent out a radio description of the suspect when Sgt. Antoine Ducret and Officer Joseph Dellauniversita of the Transit Anti-Terrorism Unit proceeded to the subway station to search for the man, police said.
That's when the two cops noticed a man fitting the description exiting a train, and after seeing that police had spotted him, Chavis posed the not-so-smooth question, police said.
The suspect fled when the cops approached him and fought with the officers before being apprehended, resulting in minor injuries to police, the NYPD said.
Dellauniversita was taken to Beth Israel Hospital, where he was treated for a fractured wrist and cuts and abrasions to his legs and arms, police said. Ducret was taken to Bellevue Hospital and treated for cuts and abrasions to his legs and arms, cops added.
Chavis is facing charges of assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, petit larceny, criminal mischief, criminal possession of stolen property and obstructing governmental administration, police said.
