A former New York teacher made a tidy living pinching gourmet food from restaurant delivery trucks, a friend said after his arrest.

ADVERTISEMENT

Charles Ross was arrested this week for allegedly stealing steaks, lobster, salmon and boxes of shrimp off trucks making the rounds at high-end Manhattan restaurants.

A person who answered Ross' cellphone Friday told the New York Post Ross did quite well selling the hot items to other restaurant.

"A couple thousand (dollars) a week," the acquaintance estimated.

"He knows a lot about life and business and school and math," the friend said, adding the onetime teacher "just fell off."

Police told the Post Ross had reinvented himself as a career criminal with three separate stretches in prison for robbery dating back to 1975.

Ross was nabbed Monday while allegedly wheeling a handcart loaded with purloined treats on West 47th St. He was jailed on $20,000 bond, sources told the Post.