A PATRIOTIC THIEF: “At about 5 p.m. yesterday, an unidentified thief with a police record broke into a red van that had been parked at 53rd Street and Second Avenue in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park for about a month, a source told The Post. He was stunned when he looked inside – it was filled with gas cans and Styrofoam cups containing a mysterious white substance with protruding wires and switches.” He drove it a few blocks away, then alerted the cops. Meanwhile, a look at the terror threat in New York.