Career Burglar, Arrested 11 Times in 2021, Calls Radical Criminal Justice Bail Reform Laws ‘Great’

A 58-year-old career criminal from New York City who was arrested 11 times in 2021 recently called the state’s leftist bail reform laws “great.”

“I’m grateful for [bail reform] because I’m too old to go to jail, I’m way too old, I can’t do it,” Charles Wold told the New York Post during a phone conversation from his mother’s house. 

The career criminal is accused of burglarizing ten businesses in Brooklyn and Manhattan over three months, but every time he was apprehended, he walked, thanks to New York’s bail reform laws, the outlet reports. 

Wold, an admitted drug addict with 32 prior arrests since 1983 – primarily for burglary and theft – told the Post: 

Rikers Island is not the key, you know what I’m saying? I’ve been in jail all my life, I can do that standing on my head, it’s not teaching me anything, I can get more drugs in there than I can out here. Hopefully the DA will see that I did not do all these crimes that they are accusing me of and they will get dismissed.

On November 24, Wold was arrested for allegedly burglarizing two Manhattan businesses and stealing cash registers, according to the Post, which cited court documents and law enforcement sources. He was arraigned the following day, and a judge set him free as “the felony burglary charges weren’t eligible for cash bail,” said the outlet. 

Days later, on November 29, surveillance footage captured a person who appeared to be the 58-year-old Wold burglarizing the Park Slope’s Hipster Deli Grocery, where prosecutors say he stole a cash register.

“It’s a headache, then the customers come in the next day, we don’t have money, we don’t have machine,” said the deli’s owner, Hazim Annisafee. 

Annisafee said he lost between $400-$600 in the stolen cash register, and on top of that had to spend another $1,400 between purchasing a new register and repairing the door.

Court records show Wold allegedly hit four other businesses throughout the next week and a half, according to the Post. 

From the Post:

On Dec. 1, Wold is accused of stealing five electric scooters, a bike and two Macbook Airs from Fridge No More in Gowanus and on Dec. 5, he allegedly broke into Artisan Barber Shop in Park Slope and stole their cash register, court documents say.

“The guy keeps going in and out, I think it’s wrong… They should give him time, leave him more in the jail so he understands more maybe,” said Rron Dulatahu, a barber and manager at the shop.

The 58-year-old criminal told the Post that he had conducted some burglaries but said he is not responsible for all the accusations he faces.

“I might’ve did one or two of ’em but that was in the beginning of the summer,” he declared. “I didn’t do all of them.”

He said a doppelganger is behind the latest string of robberies. 

“Whoever’s doing it has glasses and a bald head and he looks just like me,” he asserted. 

He also blamed his criminal past on his opioid addiction. 

“People need to understand what addiction is, I don’t want to do crime, I don’t want to hurt people, I don’t want to steal from people,” Wold told the Post before expressing remorse for his actions. 

“I really feel really, really bad about my situation and some of the people I have hurt… If I did it, I apologize,” he added. 

Wold is also suspected of multiple unsolved burglaries in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Park Slope neighborhood, said Park Slope Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District Executive Director Mark Caserta. 

“We’ve seen many of our businesses are suffering from the Omicron strain and to have someone breaking into storefronts and taking money and breaking property is just an insult during a very difficult time,” he told the Post. 

New York City criminals have repeatedly taken advantage of the state’s bail reform laws. 

Last year, 22-year-old Isaac Rodriguez was arrested at least 57 times, including 46 for retail thefts and one for an alleged stabbing, Breitbart News reported. He has allegedly stolen from a Walgreens in Jackson Heights 23 times. 

In November, Luis Gabriel Gomez, 27, was taken into custody for allegedly killing a mother and her  daughter a week after he was released from custody without bail following an arrest on an arson charge, Breitbart News reported. 

Bail reform was a central issue in two district attorney elections on Long Island this past November.

“Republicans came away with significant victories on Long Island as the election of Republican district attorneys in Nassau and Suffolk Counties signals a repudiation of the state’s contentious bail reform law,” Breitbart News said.