Big Apple cops took almost a half-hour to respond to a rowdy Queens car meet-up where a local couple was beaten by a mob of cowardly thugs because they had their hands full on other calls and it was first reported as drag racing, police said.

But it won’t happen again, an NYPD spokesperson said Monday.

Police brass said it will be stepping up patrols in the Malba neighborhood “to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” one day after dozens of hoodlums converged on 141st Street and South Drive early Sunday morning for a street “takeover” that left a parked car in flames and neighbors in the hospital.

“The 109 [Precinct] covers a large geographical area, and this was a busy Saturday night,” the department said in a statement. “At the time of the incident in question, other units from the 109 were handling multiple priority jobs, including an arrest for an individual who was driving intoxicated, transporting someone to the hospital, an assault, and a vehicle collision with injuries.”

The chaos unfolded around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, when a crew of out-of-control drivers showed up uninvited and began screeching wheels in the street and driving over neighborhood lawns.

When local resident Blake Ferrer came out and told them to “get the f–k off my property,” the punks turned on him and pummeled him mercilessly in a cowardly caught-on-video attack.

The crowd even struck Ferrer’s wife, then lit a car on fire and took off, police said.

Ferrer told The Post on Monday that he suffered broken bones in the attack.

“Listen, at the end of the day, all I want is for this never to happen to anybody else again,” he said. “Hopefully, it can deter any group of kids from going into any neighborhood. 

“If they make an arrest, I’m 100% pressing charges,” Ferrer added. “Somebody’s gotta pay so it doesn’t happen again.”

Cops got the first 911 call about drag racing around 12:37 a.m., but had officers out on a slew of other crimes that were classified as higher priorities, the department said.

It wasn’t until 12:50 a.m. that the call was upgraded to a higher priority criminal mischief, which sent cops scrambling to the scene of the mayhem after the goons took off. It was a seven-minute response to the scene once the call was upgraded, an NYPD spokesperson said.

“It happens pretty regularly. There’s intersections where you can see the tire burns,” said area resident Tanya Piric. “It’s nothing new. It’s terrible. I read that someone reported it to 911 and they were told to call 311. Which is insane. Where’s the security?” 

Security company boss Larry Rusch, another local, called the scene “insane,” and said it was worse than past rowdy gatherings in the area.

“This group was from the Bronx,” he said. “This has never happened. You might get locals, the spoiled kids that get the BMW’s, they come over, they do a couple burn-outs and they’re gone. But this? You couldn’t even walk through here.”

“This group was from the Bronx,” he said.

City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, who represents the neighborhood, was livid over the illegal street takeover, and complained to The Post that “disgrace is an understatement” for what happened.

However, police brass in the borough met with Paladino and local residents on Sunday, and vowed to increase NYPD patrols in the area to make sure it doesn’t happen.