Bust creep in ripoff of blind woman

Angel Familia is hardly the NYPD’s first Police Academy graduate whose second language is English.

But he is almost surely the first whose native tongue is spoken with his hands.

Unlike his parents, Familia is not deaf, but sign language is the only language he knew until he was 7.

And when he graduates from the academy Friday to take his place among the NYPD’s Finest, Familia’s proud parents will be there in support and silence, counting on him, like they have since he was a boy, to translate for them.

“Sign language was my first language, and I grew up assisting my parents at doctor’s appointments, making a welfare visit or just simple interactions in life,” Familia, 21, said. “My parents would always look at me and say, ‘What is this person saying?’ ”

Familia was often in the middle, and on a few occasions when he got in trouble at school he tried to take advantage of his position.

At parent-teacher conferences, Familia’s translation of his teachers’ assessments were often a little more glowing than delivered. Eventually his mom and dad caught on.

“They started doing it the old-fashioned way, passing around a pen and paper,” Familia said with a laugh.

When Familia was enrolled in school as a child, his teachers thought he was deaf because he signed all the time and didn’t talk much. Soon they realized that he simply didn’t like talking because he wasn’t used to it.

Familia developed a passion for the police he saw on the big screen and in the streets of the Bronx, where his family of five lived in a onebedroom apartment.

He attended speech therapy sessions until he got to high school, and taught his

Cops have arrested a heartless crook they say robbed a blind woman and her 10-year-old daughter at Port Authority Bus Terminal, police said Thursday.

Port Authority police had been looking for the bedraggled suspect since Dec. 20, when he swiped $70 from the child as she sorted the money for her disabled mother, a Port Authority spokeswoman said.

The little girl was counting the money in the wallet when the suspect ran over, snatched a wad of bills and ran off, authorities said. Neither the child nor her mother were harmed.

Police released a photo of the bearded brute walking through a subway turnstile Wednesday.

As cops searched for the suspect, members of the Port Authority Sergeants Benevolent Association and Port Authority Detectives Endowment Association donated $140 to the victim so she wouldn’t be without cash, the Port Authority spokeswoman said.

The crook was spotted at Penn Station Thursday morning, the spokeswoman said. The suspect, whose name was not released, has not yet been charged.