A 57-year-old Bronx man dusted off his karate skills Tuesday and turned the tables on three would-be robbers decades younger than him, police and the victim said.

Diogenes Angeles was walking to a pharmacy near his home in Morrisania about noon when the young men marked him as an easy target.

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© Schwartz for NewsTwo suspects are escorted from Bronx's 40th Precinct stationhouse after allegedly trying to rob Diogenes Angeles who used karate he learned as a teen to defend himself.

"They see that I am kind of old and figured they can just come and rob me," said the grandfather of six.

Eugene Sanchez, 19, Rakeem Johnson, 23, and Jason Lopez, 25, taunted and then attacked Angeles, police said.

That's when Angeles, who studied karate when he was 14, tapped the fountain of youth and snapped a punch into one of the men - and a streak of fear into the hapless thieves.

"Once they saw I could defend myself, they ran away," Angeles, a retired sign painter, said in Spanish. "I hope they learn from this and don't attack other people."

Police later arrested the cowardly robbers, all Bronx residents, and charged them with robbery, criminal possession of stolen property and resisting arrest.

Sanchez bit a cop on the hand and was also charged with assaulting a police officer, authorities said.

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© Schwartz for News
Angeles kept his karate skills sharp by practicing every day, saying he knew they would someday come in handy.

"We live in a city where you leave your house and you don't know what's going to happen," he said. "You need to be able to defend yourself."