A suspect in the violent mugging of an elderly man at a Queens convenience store was arrested on the street Wednesday after police officers approached him and he tearfully confessed to the crime, authorities said.

Police officers suspected 37-year-old Charles Piccolo was the man captured on surveillance video beating and robbing 78-year-old Elias Bournias at a convenience store on 31st Street Tuesday morning.

Piccolo, who was arrested three times in the past year on drug charges, was spotted by patrol officers from the 114th Precinct's Anti-Crime Unit near 35th Street and Astoria Boulevard in Astoria the night after the robbery, according to police.

When the officers approached him, Piccolo immediately began to cry and admitted to robbing Bournias, police said.

He was arrested on robbery and assault charges.

Bournias returned home earlier Wednesday after getting a head wound suffered in the attack stitched up. He told NBC 4 New York he was pulling his cash out at the front window of the store when a man suddenly threw him to the ground and took $400 in cash from him, he said.

"As I pulled the money out, which is my fault, a guy from inside the store came out the door right behind me -- I didn't even see him -- and he grabbed, and I probably put some resistance, and he threw me to the ground and broke my head," said Bournias.

Bournias lost consciousness and bled so profusely the deli owner thought he'd died.

"His eyes were closed, there was a lot of bleeding from the head," said owner Bipin Mehta.

Mehta said the attacker had been hanging around the store making small talk, clearly waiting for a good opportunity. The deli owner said he'd never seen the suspect before Tuesday.

Bournias was taken by EMS to Elmhurst Hospital, where he received stitches to the head. He returned home Wednesday is good spirits.

"If I was 30 years younger, he wouldn't have taken the money," he said.

Bournias, a former restaurant owner, said he's been held up twice before, but never attacked until Tuesday. He scolded his then-unknown attacker about targeting someone his age, telling NBC 4 New York, "Not to do to any old people. If he wants to mug, he can mug somebody his own age."

After learning his alleged attacker had been arrested, he told NBC 4 New York, "I'm happy because those type of people should not be around."

-- Rob Schmitt contributed to this report