The man hailed as a hero for finding a lost 4-year-old boy on the subway Tuesday was wanted for questioning in a child sex abuse case — and misled cops about where he actually found the lost boy, according to police.

And now he’ll dodge kidnapping charges, because the Brooklyn District Attorney is declining to prosecute him — despite cops’ insistence he should have been charged.

The 35-year-old, whose name is being withheld because he was not charged with a crime, told police he found young Messiah Cummings alone on a morning-rush J train pulling into Canal Street, took the kid with him to work on the Bowery because he was late, and called the authorities once he got there.

But police say the man actually scooped the kid up at the Broadway Junction station way out in Brooklyn.

“We’ve seen the videos of him picking up the kid in Brooklyn. He lifted him up and carried him on the train,” an NYPD spokesman said, citing security footage. “We’re very lucky this kid’s OK.”

The man admitted Wednesday that he carried Cummings onto the train.

“I saw the kid crying on the platform,” he said. “He took my hand and said he can’t find his mommy. That’s when I picked him up and got on the train.”

Then the man brought the youngster all the way to the Manhattan restaurant supplier where he works, but rather than call the cops, he sat the kid down at his own desk. A concerned co-worker called 911, a police source said.

“He had every opportunity to call police once he found the child, but decided to take him to work — and then didn’t even call police,” the source griped.

The man claimed he just wasn’t thinking.

“I was just trying to make sure he was fed, that he was doing alright. Someone else from the company called the police,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking about how long it took to call the police. I was just focused on taking care of the kid, making sure he ate, reassuring him that he’d see his mother soon.”

Police on Tuesday charged the man with kidnapping, but the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office declined to pursue charges.

“He didn’t kidnap the child, he made no attempt to hide him, and he took him to his boss the minute he came into work. Look, they even fed him cookies. This was not a kidnapping,” said a source familiar with the case.

But a high-ranking police source said he should at least have been charged with child endangerment.

“He shouldn’t be openly transporting a child who’s not in his custody and is a stranger to him,” the source said.

While working the case, police discovered the man was wanted for questioning in the alleged sex abuse of a child relative. Police called the victim’s family Tuesday, and the family declined to pursue the case, so police cleared him, sources said.

Additional reporting by Emily Saul