Hispanic cop/thief: A Former NYPD sergeant hired to guard against theft at a Manhattan Apple store has been busted for swiping $76,000 worth of iPods and iPhones from the high-tech outpost

Manuel DaSilva, 42, was caught on surveillance cameras smuggling armfuls of gadgets out the back door of Apple’s SoHo store to his car, prosecutors said. DaSilva, who left the NYPD in shame after testing positive for steroids, confessed that he fenced the best-selling gizmos on the street. “I sold each item for around $500,” he told investigators, according to a criminal complaint. “I kept some of the cash proceeds in my safe and I used the rest to pay my bills,” the muscle-bound Apple security guard admitted. DaSilva was arrested by investigators of the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance's Cybercrime & Identity Theft Bureau. A search of DaSilva’s Staten Island home turned up $12,000 in cash from a safe and an iPad and an iPod Touch, according to court papers. DaSilva was caught red-handed on store security cameras six different times between April and June 8, 2012 rifling through the store’s storage stock credenza, police said. He told investigators that he only stole 17 smart devices, but prosecutors contend that he helped himself to more than 100. DaSilva has been arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on grand theft and released on his own recognizance. DaSilva was a sergeant at the 61st Precinct station house in Brooklyn until getting caught up in an department internal investigation into steroid use among officers. He was one of six cops who tested positive for steroids in 2007. DaSilva soon left the department after he was suspended and placed on modified duty.