The serial shoplifter fatally stabbed by a CVS employee was busted for stealing from another of the drugstore’s locations just four days before his death — and was set to be sentenced next week for a slew of other brazen incidents, The Post has learned.

Charles Brito, the 50-year-old homeless man, who was knifed early Thursday while trying to rob a CVS in Midtown, had more than a dozen prior arrests to his name — and had an MO for targeting drugstores, cops and sources said.

He was most recently picked up on July 2 on a petit larceny charge after snatching four Monster energy drinks and seven Starbucks Frappuccinos from a CVS store in Upper Manhattan just before 6 p.m., according to sources.

The serial offender returned to the store two hours later to fill up a suitcase with $125 worth of items, including Oreos, Pepsi, M&Ms, Hershey’s Kisses and more Starbucks drinks, the sources said.

The circumstances surrounding his release from custody in that incident weren’t immediately known.

Prior to his death, Brito was due in a Manhattan court on July 10 to be sentenced to three years’ probation after taking a plea deal that lumped two earlier incidents together.

He had been nabbed targeting the same CVS in Upper Manhattan on June 13 after pilfering energy drinks from the store’s fridges, according to a criminal complaint. Again, he returned hours later to steal more of the same items.

Brito was slapped with a petit larceny charge in that incident and a judge subsequently set his bail at $5,000 cash, records show.

But the matter ended up being wiped on June 21 when the case was bundled together with a robbery arrest from Jan. 17 during which he stole a woman’s purse in broad daylight at Sixth Avenue and 56th Street.

As part of the deal, he pleaded guilty to petit larceny and was released ahead of next week’s scheduled sentencing.

Just one day after being set free, the homeless perp continued on his rampage by hitting up a CVS on the Upper West Side, where he made off with 24 packets of toothpaste and more than a dozen razors and blades, a complaint shows.

He pleaded guilty to petit larceny at his arraignment and was sentenced to a conditional discharge.

Prior to his death, Brito had 16 unsealed arrests to his name — including 13 for petit larceny, sources said.

“That’s his MO, he targets CVS and Walgreens,” a law enforcement source said.

He had been trying to steal Gatorade and a container of creamer from the CVS at Broadway and West 49th Street just before 12:30 a.m. when he got into the fatal scuffle with store employee Scotty Enoe, cops and sources said.

The would-be thief socked Enoe in the face before the employee allegedly whipped out a knife and stabbed the man in the torso. 

The 5-foot-9 Enoe, who has sickle cell anemia, was outmatched by Brito — who was two inches taller and 40 pounds heavier, police sources said.

Enoe was taken into custody at the scene and escorted to Mount Sinai West with contusions to the face, a source said. He was later taken to the precinct and charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

“He acted in self-defense. He did what he had to do,” Enoe’s mom, Lucille Enoe, 72, told The Post, adding that her son offered up his side of the story when he called her following his arrest.