Man wearing fake bulletproof vest arrested on Lower East Side accused of threatening a New York pedestrian

It wouldn’t have stopped a bullet, but it helped get the police to stop him.

A man wearing fake armor was arrested in lower Manhattan on Friday after what a witness described as a road rage incident on Norfolk St. near Rivington St. on the Lower East Side.

Brooklyn resident John Hayer, 26, was driving a green Land Rover northbound in Norfolk when he got into an argument with a pedestrian who complained about loud music being played, police said.

“He stopped too close to the guy he was crossing,” said a worker at a nearby apartment building, who wished to remain anonymous.

The driver of the Land Rover rolled down his window, the construction worker said. “The guy (pedestrian) said he (Hayer) pointed a gun at him and said, ‘Keep walking!’” the worker said.

The pedestrian called 911, the worker said. “I was in shock,” the witness said. “Who expects someone to point a gun at him when he’s crossing the street?”

Hayer drove away and parked the Land Rover a few blocks away, on Stanton St., near Orchard St., police said.

Officers began searching for Hayer, who said a 911 caller described him as armed and wearing a bulletproof vest.

When the cops found the Land Rover parked on Orchard St., they waited there for Hayer to return.

At about 1:10 p.m., Hayer returned to the car and NYPD officers arrested him on a charge of making threats, police said.

Hayer did not have a weapon and the fake bulletproof vest was likely something of a fashion statement, police said.

Hayer has a record of three prior arrests, a police source said. Her most recent arrest, in February, was in Brooklyn on strangulation charges, the source and public records said.

with emma seiwell