Mom of NYC serial burglar ‘Teflon Con’ Charles Wold at wit’s end
Even his mom is at her wit’s end with one of the city’s most prolific burglars – a chronic heroin addict who says he robs to pay for his habit.
Angela Wold, the mother of “Teflon Con” Charles Wold, 57, said her son needs help — but admitted he’s been a problem most of his life.
“My son has been in and out of the system for years,” Angela, 78, told The Post outside the Park Slope basement apartment where she’s lived for 58 years, and from which she might be evicted because of publicity about Charles.
Wold was arrested Thursday on a felony burglary charge for breaking into a midtown cafe, and has 32 prior arrests for burglary and theft dating back to 1983.
“He needs help. He has mental issues. He’s like a manic depressive. He called me last night, crying, saying, ‘It’s Chucky.’ But I can’t let him in. My youngest says, ‘Ma don’t let him come in. The landlord sees him you’re dead.’ “
Charles Wold was released after his arrest for breaking into Jessie’s Express Cafe in Midtown, Manhattan and stealing their cash register on Dec. 21, court records show.
Jay Najde, son of the cafe’s owner Eddie Najde, said he was disgusted with Wold’s release — once again.
“Now that he is out, this will make the city more dangerous because crime rates will increase,” Najde told The Post Saturday. “The whole area over here is changing. A lot of homeless people are getting on the streets. He didn’t get his punishment. He got a lot of money and nobody paid me back.”
Manhattan prosecutors had sought $30,000 bail for Wold during his Friday arraignment, citing four open felony cases for similar crimes — but he was released on his own recognizance instead.
The Brooklyn native admitted to The Post in January that he steals because he’s a long time heroin addict, and said jail doesn’t work for him, he needs rehabilitation.
His mother said he was badly beaten at Rikers after speaking out. He’s now staying with a girlfriend on Staten Island. The younger Wold uses uses methadone to try to get off heroin — and allegedly may be going into a two-year drug rehab treatment program in Chicago, his mom claimed.
“If you met him, he’s a nice guy,” Angela said. “Believe me. Everybody likes him. He’s a good worker. He has million dollar hands. He could fix anything. He’s a plumber. And the people around here, they like him. Even my landlord hired him to do work.”
But with Wold out — yet again — and with his rap sheet, there’s no telling what he’ll do, his mom admitted.
“You don’t know what he’s capable of,” Angela Wold said. “He might say, ‘Well, let me go rob a house.’ I don’t know. I gave him $40 just today that he needed for cigarettes.”
The good news, according to his mother, is that “he doesn’t hurt people. He doesn’t use weapons. He has no guns. He’s not that type. Thank God. He won’t hurt a person. Nobody. He’s a burglar. That’s what he does. He used to rob cars as a kid. He used to rob cars. We thought it was a joke. He used to want brand new cars.”
