Retail ‘perv’ targets girls

Ex-worker a menace: suit

A Bronx man has been trolling Instagram for pretty, underage girls and then luring them into sex traps by posing as a hiring manager for retail giants such as Zara and Levi Strauss, according to court records.

Darrin Paul Barker, 24, was arrested on Aug. 31 and charged with acting in a manner injurious to a child and harassment in the second degree with physical contact.

He was released on $500 cash bond and is due back in court in November.

One of the retailers, Levi Strauss, is now suing to block him from continuing the sick charade.

A new Manhattan Supreme Court suit says Barker worked as a temporary employee at Levi’s West 34th Street store in 2012 and 2014.

Levi’s was alerted to the alleged pervert fraudster when a woman came into the retailer’s Times Square store in July and showed a manager a series of text messages purportedly between her 15-year-old daughter and Barker.

Barker, pretending to be a current Levi’s employee, contacted young women online regarding summer job opportunities, the lawsuit says.

In a July 3 exchange, he asked the 15-year-old her age and experience and then requested her phone number “so I can give you more insight on the position,” according to a copy of the messages.

In subsequent texts, he sent the girl photos of himself at the Levi’s store, explaining, “I know this is random so I’ll send proof.”

He told her she would be a “sales lead guiding your team to make sales goals from previous years,” but then later in the exchange allegedly wrote, “I was looking for something on the side to be honest.”

Reached by telephone Wednesday and asked about the allegations, Barker said, “What?” and then hung up.

The Levi’s suit claims Barker is still using social media pretending to work for the jeans company to entrap minors.

The suit says his behavior is harming its “brand, reputation and customer goodwill.”