Times Square hero cop from LI back in the saddle

NYPD Officer Wayne Rhatigan returned to Broadway Thursday night a star.

The Holbrook hero cop and his horse Miggs were back on patrol about 6 p.m., five days after being alerted to a smoking sport utility vehicle by a street vendor and starting an evacuation of Times Square.

Rhatigan, 47, and Miggs, 15, were not greeted by loud applause, but quietly got back to work. When visitors learned what he'd done, however, the reaction was one of genuine respect, in some cases awe.

"Let me shake your hand," said Ken Sukhia, 57, as he approached Rhatigan. The Tallahassee, Fla., visitor said it was "surreal" to see the site of the failed bomb attempt and "a thrill" to meet Rhatigan, who grew up in Bethpage.

Rhatigan and Miggs belong to a 90-officer, 62-horse mounted unit that dates to 1871. It was formed to deal with the "reckless galloping of saddle and carriage horses" in city streets, according to the NYPD's website.

It turns out the officer and mount make a great team when it comes to policing large crowds, like those at Times Square. As the sun went down and the crowds thickened, Miggs seemed to be right at home, his head at a drowsy bent as he accepted pats from tourists. Rhatigan, who the NYPD did not allow to be interviewed, was also clearly in his element, bantering with visitors who snapped photos of him and his horse.

Rock fans in the crowd? No problem. "When Joe Strummer died I was devastated, just devastated," he told one tattooed woman, referring to the former front man for The Clash.

How about visitors from Australia? Rhatigan loved playing lacrosse there after college, he told a mother and daughter from Melbourne, but hated the Vegemite sandwich, a national favorite. The daughter said she didn't like the peanut butter and jelly here. "You need to have peanut butter and jelly and a big glass of cold milk," Rhatigan said laughing.

Tinamarie Rhatigan, 44, met her husband when she was 14 at a roller rink in Massapequa. A few years later, after being out of touch, they went on a date, and he asked her what she was doing with the next 60 years of her life. They married three years later and have three children.

She said the family has been on a roller coaster of emotion since Saturday. There is pride, she said, but also the recognition that things could have turned out differently.

The week's events have shown her a side of her husband not often seen, she said. It happened at a ceremony Wednesday where Rhatigan was honored by his fellow mounted officers. "As my one son said, 'I've never seen daddy cry.' "