Meet Howard Bach, the 100-year-old retired NYPD detective who met notorious bank robber Willie Sutton during his three decades on the force

He’s the oldest retired NYPD detective, still plays the harmonica and recalls the day he met notorious bank robber Willie Sutton, who was half-naked at the time.

Howard Bach, who turned 100 in July, joined the force in 1948 after serving as a U.S. Marine for four years on the USS Mississippi in the Pacific during World War II. He retired from the NYPD in 1978 after 30 years of service.

“It was quite an experience,” Bach told the Post of his career with the NYPD.

“He fought for this nation in the war and Howard Bach went on to serve this city proudly as an NYPD detective,” said Scott Munro, president of the Detectives Endowment Association. “We honor him on his 100th birthday and wish this crime fighter many more years of good health.”

The DEA honored Bach for his lifetime of service last month at Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Long Island.

Bach was born on July 4, 1924. Prohibition was still in effect and the Big Apple saw its first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

He grew up in a house on stilts at a place called Springfield Dock in Queens, now John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Bach, who was already an excellent swimmer at the age of 8, once saved another child from drowning. When the boy’s father gave him a rowboat as a gift, he wrote “PD” on the boat, a reference to the police department he dreamed of joining one day.

“He always wanted to be a police officer,” boasts his proud daughter, Karen Clinton, 73.

He and his wife, Dolores, had three sons and three daughters. Two of their sons served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, returned home but have since died. Bach’s third son, a retired federal agent, and his daughters watch over their father, Clinton said.

Bach was repeatedly recognized by the department for his police work in letters his daughter kept.

In one, dated December 13, 1948, Bach was commended for stopping an armed robber who had assaulted and robbed the owner of a Brooklyn hardware store. Bach had heard the man’s cries for help and then set out in pursuit of the bandit.

“This is indeed an excellent piece of work and your vigilance, intelligent action and strict adherence to duty deserve the highest praise,” wrote the then Police Commissioner, Arthur Wallander.

“He made so many arrests as a foot patrol officer that they made him a detective within six months,” his daughter said.

Bach has helped solve more cases than he can remember, he told the Post, including a Queens case where a man killed a woman in his basement and then dumped her body in the oven.

“We took him down there,” Bach said. “We also got a confession and he went to prison.”

He will always remember his encounter with Sutton, the most famous bank robber in American history, who robbed dozens of banks during his 40-year criminal life. He also escaped from prison three times.

When asked why he robbed banks, Sutton famously replied, “Because that’s where the money is.”

Bach’s partner arrested Sutton in 1952 in Brooklyn.

He couldn’t get the necklace back because it was at the store, but he met the robber when he returned to the 78th Precinct police station. Sutton had just been strip-searched.

“They had him in the back room and he didn’t have any pants on and he asked me, ‘Can you please put my pants on,’” Bach recalled.

Bach took off his handcuffs and said, “Sure, go ahead Willie.”

“He was a very nice man, you know, a very kind man,” Bach recalled. “He never killed anybody or anything like that.”

Bach said he was proud of his years of service.

“I just had this calling,” he said. “I thought it was a good job, and it turned out to be a good job.”