The “Batman” character busted for ripping off a Times Square tourist was unmasked on Thursday as the same Caped Crusader who testified — in costume — at a City Council hearing over the panhandlers in the Crossroads of the World.
José Escalona-Martinez, 42, was nabbed by cops as he tried to run off with a $50 bill he allegedly snatched from a 23-year-old woman visiting from Ireland, law-enforcement sources said.
Escalona-Martinez, from Harlem, allegedly grabbed the cash from the victim’s wallet while she was tipping him at Broadway and West 45th Street shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday.
He was charged Thursday with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property and released without bail.
“I didn’t do anything,” Escalona-Martinez said outside court. “I’m not guilty.”
In 2014, Escalona-Martinez was pictured on The Post’s front page telling council members that he and other costumed characters had the right to beg for donations in Times Square.
The disgraced Dark Knight’s arrest isn’t the first time he’s run afoul of the law, sources said.
In 2014, he was busted for urinating on a subway platform, and in 2013 he was charged with hitting a woman in the face with a wooden stick. He copped pleas in both cases.
Escalona-Martinez also has pending suits against the city over two arrests in Times Square, one of which took place while he was dressed as Spider-Man.