It’s the “Hangover” — in real life.
A Connecticut doctor allegedly kidnapped outside the troubled Brooklyn Mirage music venue described how he was taken on a wild ride by his possibly gun-wielding captor — including on a more than $6,000 shopping spree, The Post has learned.
Michael Bautista, a 32-year-old ophthalmologist and cataract surgeon from Norwalk, claimed he was taken hostage by a Bronx man going by the name “Tony G’s,” who threatened to shoot him if he tried “anything funny,” police said.
The suspect, Anthony Benjamin, 42, allegedly forced Bautista to traipse with him through the Bronx on July 22 and 23, for an excursion that included pizza and smoothies, as well as hitting up a strip club and a Foot Locker, according to law enforcement sources.
Benjamin is accused of strong-arming the doctor into shelling out more than $1,800 at 4U House of Fitted Caps on White Plains Road; $1,100 at Foxy Fitness and Pole, a chain of pole-dance fitness schools; and nearly $1,700 at Foot Locker, sources said.
Benjamin — who allegedly said he was “packing” — also took Bautista to his barber, who chopped and styled the hijacker’s braided purple-and-black locks, according to an incident report from the Norwalk Police Department.
The doctor tried to play it cool until he could find a way out, cops said.
But Benjamin allegedly got more aggressive as the day passed, telling Bautista that he’d “put people in body bags before” and that he wasn’t afraid to “let bullets fly,” according to the police report.
The bizarre odyssey — which didn’t end until Bautista told the security guards at his Connecticut hospital that he’d been kidnapped — started at the Brooklyn Mirage, the same venue from which two 27-year-old men disappeared on two different nights this summer before each turned up dead in a nearby creek.
Residents have been asking elected officials to crack down on the shadowy characters who lurk in the industrial neighborhood, seemingly lying in wait for drunk or otherwise impaired patrons to stumble out into the night.
Bautista appears to have met one such character on July 21, when he got together with friends to go to a 10 p.m. show at the Mirage.
When it ended, he hopped in a taxi and told the driver to take him back to his car, which was parked several blocks away, according to the report by Norwalk Police.
But another man — later identified as Benjamin — was allegedly already in the back seat when the doctor got in.
That’s when things apparently went south.
First, the driver told Bautista he could forget about his car, because he was taking the pair to an after-hours party in Manhattan whether he wanted to go or not, the report said.
The doctor and the driver got into an argument once they reached the nightspot: The driver wanted money, and the doctor refused.
Benjamin — who according to sources stands about 6 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds — allegedly defused the situation after the driver tried to hit Bautista, the report said.
Benjamin convinced the doctor to hand out — he was a promoter for the event, after all. The doctor agreed “because he wanted to get off the street,” the report said.
But Bautista’s savior act turned weird once inside, as he claimed he was the doctor’s “protection” and said that he was “packing” — as he touched his waistband, the court document stated.
The doctor wanted to leave, but Benjamin “begged him to stay,” he told cops.
The two went for a walk instead, then got in an Uber and headed back to Brooklyn. When they returned to the doctor’s car, Benjamin convinced him to drive him to the Bronx, the report said.
Benjamin allegedly started making comments about flying bullets and body bags — then he said he’d kill Bautista before laughing it off like it was a joke, the report stated.
Bautista must have missed the funny part, because he later told cops that Benjamin said, “If you do anything funny, I’ll kill you,” according to sources.
The pair stopped at several ATMs, where the doctor took out about $1,000 — and Benjamin handed some of the money out to friends in his Bronx neighborhood, the report stated.
Then they went on their shopping spree, which took them to several stores and a handful of Bronx restaurants — like Mario’s Pizzeria, Hollywood Delights, Freckles Juice and Family African Meat Market — to pick up more than $570 worth of food, according to sources.
They also stopped at a fitness studio called Foxy Fitness and Pole — where they spent $1,100, according to police sources.
“Bautista stated during the entire incident he was going along with what Benjamin wanted him to do,” Norwalk Police Officer Akeem Bryce wrote in the report.
Eventually, the doctor told Benjamin that he was on-call that weekend, and that people would get suspicious if he didn’t show up to work.
So the alleged kidnapper recruited Steve Daley, 50, of Vernon, New York, to drive the pair to Norwalk because Benjamin didn’t know how to drive Bautista’s manual-transmission car, the report said.
When the trio arrived at Norwalk Hospital at about 4 a.m. Sunday, Benjamin told Bautista he should bring him inside and tell his colleagues that the purple-haired abductor was a visiting doctor.
Bautista told him he couldn’t — saying Benjamin needed credentials.
Once inside, he told the hospital security that Benjamin and Daley were waiting in a car outside. The guards locked down the hospital and called the cops.
Police later arrested the pair. It’s not known if a gun was recovered.
Connecticut police charged Benjamin with second-degree kidnapping with a firearm and possession of a controlled substance.
The court set his bond at $1 million, but he was later released after he promised to appear, according to court records.
Cops also charged Daley with conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping. His bond was set at $250,000, but he was released under the same promise.
Both are scheduled to appear in Connecticut Superior Court on Sept. 19. Neither returned requests for comment Wednesday.
Sources told The Post that it’s very likely the feds will take over the case because it involves interstate kidnapping.
Bautista did not respond to calls and texts seeking comment. An administrator at the ophthalmology practice he works for claimed she was speaking on his behalf – but would not comment beyond saying “the case is ongoing.”
