He was a little early for breakfast.
An allegedly drunken off-duty cop slammed his car into the front of Tiffany’s flagship Fifth Avenue store at 3 a.m. yesterday, leaving the famous store’s fa?ade looking more like a highway guardrail, police sources said.
The wreck happened as Officer Raphael Ospina, 27, was driving east on 57th Street. He allegedly collided with a private garbage truck heading in the opposite direction and turning left onto Fifth Avenue.
After clipping the truck, Ospina’s Chrysler 300 sedan, with two passengers inside, jumped a curb, crushed a tree and a garbage can and hit the front of the famous jewelry store.
The impact was strong enough that the three occupants had to be cut out of the vehicle. All were taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment. The garbage-truck driver was uninjured.
Blood and shattered glass littered the scene.
Ospina, who joined the force in 2004, was so out of it that he told detectives that the year was 2009 and George W. Bush was still president, sources said.
The officer was charged yesterday with DWI and one count of vehicular assault, for the injury to his passengers, police said. He’s been suspended for 30 days without pay.
Ospina’s brother, Daniel, 19, said the officer suffered broken ribs in the wreck.
Daniel said the two passengers were neighborhood pals from Queens.
One broke his arm in three places while the other suffered a back injury that required surgery, Daniel said.
Daniel said Raphael is known around the neighborhood as a cop who likes to party.
“Yeah, he likes to live life,” Daniel said. “He’s the type of guy everyone likes to be around. He likes to get people in a great mood.”
Asked if his brother had ever before imbibed before getting behind the wheel, Daniel said: “I’m sure he has. He must have. I don’t know for a fact.”
Daniel said their mom, Martha, cried “hysterically” when she got news of the wreck.
When told that DWI charges had been filed against his brother, Daniel said, “Everyone make mistakes. Nobody’s perfect.”