114 Precinct Robbery on 31st Street View Full Caption NYPD

DITMARS — The robber who knocked a 78-year-old man to the ground in Astoria during a brutal mugging broke down crying and confessed to the crime, police said.

Charles Piccolo, 37, was picked up by Anti-Crime officers after police suspected he was the same man captured on surveillance video throwing an elderly man to the ground during a robbery outside a convenience store on Tuesday.

Officers spotted Piccolo — who has three previous arrests for drug possession in the 114th Precinct in the last year — at the corner of 35th Street and Astoria Boulevard Wednesday night. The results of the earlier cases were not clear.

He "began to weep" and owned up to the robbery when approached by police, the NYPD said.

Piccolo was charged with second-degree robbery and assault, police said. Information on his defense lawyer was not immediately available.

The victim, who was attacked while buying cigarettes from a store on 31st Street near Ditmars Boulevard, suffered an injury to the back of his head.

He was brought to Elmhurst Hospital Tuesday and was in stable condition, police said.