A pimp who once appeared on the Sally Jessy Raphael show in full regalia — a wig, mink coat, sunglasses and gold chains — has been arrested for a series of high-end robberies at Equinox fitness clubs in Manhattan — and the swanky Peninsula Hotel, The Post has learned.
Career criminal Alfonso Rizzuto, 54, who’s served four stints in prison dating back to 1979, was busted last Thursday with three bolt cutters and a pry bar at the Equinox on East 85th Street after being cornered by several of the club’s upscale members, a court complaint states.
Between Nov. 1, 2015 and Jan. 27, Rizzuto hit eleven Equinox clubs in the city’s ritziest neighborhoods from Soho to the Upper East Side — and the fitness center at the Peninsula Hotel on Fifth Avenue.
He sauntered past the check-in desks while pretending to talk on his cell phone, then slipped inside men’s rooms and broke into lockers, swiping wallets that contained a total of 46 credit cards, the complaint says.
In all, he committed 14 thefts, which were captured on video surveillance at the health clubs, the documents state.
The ex-con then allegedly used the stolen credit cards to go on high-end shopping sprees, hitting at least eight retail stores in the Big Apple.
He was held on $500,000 bail following his Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment last Friday on felony charges, including burglary, grand larceny and identity theft.
In Feb. 1997, Rizzuto, decked out in his pimp gear, appeared on the Sally Jessy Raphael show, boasting about his call-girl ring in a segment titled, “Mom, I want to be a teen prostitute.”
Weeks later, Rizzuto was tossed back into the clink on a parole violation from a previous robbery conviction.
He started using the prison’s collect-call telephone system to order his employees on the outside to hire hookers, place ads for business and collect 50 percent of their $150 to $300 hourly fee.
Despite posted signs warning that all inmate calls are monitored and recorded, Rizzuto was overheard by state correctional investigators telling an associate how to hire prostitutes and their drivers and the rules they must follow while working for him as a hooker.
Rizzuto received half of the fees collected by each prostitute, netting him a whopping $500,000 while he was behind bars.