This was almost breaking news.
An attempt to make an outdoor “rage room” amusement on a Lower East Side street almost went bad Saturday — when the play violence looked so real someone called police to say a riot was going on.
The Ragery — where for $5-a-pop patrons can use a bat to smash a car as the “ultimate stress relief” – looked so much like the bad old days of the city on Essex Street that cops swooped onto the scene with sirens flashing.
“They said that somebody called, that they were worried that somebody smashing the car,” owner Roman Lupu told The Post.
The NYPD said a good Samaritan called 911 to report three men hitting a vehicle around 2:45 p.m. — just an hour after the sanctioned battering began.
What the well-meaning citizen didn’t mention was that the thugs were wearing matching hard hats, safety glasses, earmuffs and aprons. Or that the already beat-up truck was neatly positioned on top of a tarp and strapped into a trailer for easy clean-up.
Officers descended onto the chaotic scene to find each of the vandals had signed a waiver before picking up a bat.
“They were very puzzled. The looks on their faces were super puzzled,” Lupu said.
“They took a while, and they kind of came closer, and I went to talk to them, and said, ‘Hey guys, don’t worry. This is all a plan, it’s just a promotional, kind of fun event for our customers for a new rage room here in the city.”
The Summer Smash event, which Lupu said was a creative way to bring attention to The Ragery, had been advertised on the business’s website for weeks — and was even pushed back a week for rain — but the NYPD and the well-meaning neighbor had apparently not caught wind of the violent party.
The Westchester resident opened the “break room for unparalleled rage relief” in January with partner Bogdan Zhukovsky as an outlet for New Yorkers’ famous aggression.
About 50 people seized the opportunity to destroy a car Saturday, Lupu said.
Although they probably needed the stress relief the most, the confused police were not among the sanctioned vandals.
The cops “responded and finalized the job,” the NYPD said.
