Carl John "CJ" Wolff

Carl J. Wolff (Courtesy photo)

Carl B. Wolff's 31 missing guns are slowly turning up in crime scenes all over the area.

One was found in a car with a homicide victim in Essex County, New Jersey. Others were found during raids in Wilson Borough and Nazareth.

Carl J. Wolff leaves court Sept. 21, 2015, before District Judge Jacqueline Taschner. (Pamela Sroka-Holzmann | For lehighvalleylive.com)

All 31 of them were stolen by the Palmer Township man's son, Carl J. Wolff, who described himself as a "hoodlum" to his father in a letter from prison.

Carl J. Wolff was sentenced Tuesday to four to eight years in state prison for breaking into his parents' home and taking the guns.

His father said Carl J. Wolff is now "serving his time that he deserves for being a menace to society."

Wolff, 28, admitted he broke into his parents' house in the 100 block of East Applewood Drive in Palmer Township between Nov. 21 and 24, 2013. He had been released from prison a month earlier.

Defense attorney Matthew Potts said it wasn't Carl J. Wolff's goal to flood the criminal underworld with guns. He sold them because he needed money for drugs.

"He was going to get anything of value he could to get heroin," Potts said. Potts said Carl J. Wolff has enrolled at every available program in prison and "realized he has to get himself straight."

"It was a drug-fueled rampage," Carl J. Wolff said. "I'm truly sorry. There's nothing else I can say."

Carl B. Wolff said no one can believe his son at this point. He's been in and out of rehab his whole life.

"He's been through programs," the father said. "He can manipulate it and use it to his advantage."

At least three years ago, the son was arrested in South Carolina. Palmer Township police Detective Tim Ruoff said he was en route to Florida and police found a gun with the serial number scratched off in his car.

Ruoff said the suspect was extradited to Newark, New Jersey, to face charges after a prison stint in South Carolina.

Carl B. Wolff said his son wrote him a letter from prison in South Carolina in which he espoused a lifestyle of crime and drugs.

"I'm 25 and I know what I'm about," Carl J. Wolff wrote. "I'm a hoodlum. I hold my weight on the street. I carry a gun and sell drugs and do what I need to do to survive."

Carl B. Wolff said his son has destroyed his family.

"He will never see his loved ones again," he said.

So far eight of the guns have been found. Most of the guns were found at crime scenes, Ruoff said.

There's no telling what havoc the remaining guns will wreak in the future, Carl B. Wolff said.

"It won't go away in five years. It won't go away in 10 years. It's a long lasting problem that he created," Carl B. Wolff said.

Northampton County Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden tacked two years of probation onto her four- to eight-year prison sentence. She ordered Wolff to receive mental health and drug treatment in state prison.

"I would like to give you a swift kick in the you-know-what for what you did," the judge said.

Carl B. Wolff said his son should be thankful for each day he spends in prison.

"He will be lucky to be alive and not found dead with a needle in his arm or a gunshot to his head," the father said. "This sentence today will help him live one day longer."

FOUND GUNS



Palmer Township police Detective Tim Ruoff provided details about some of the recovered guns:

A gun was found in the glove box of a car with a homicide victim in Essex County, New Jersey, on March 10, 2014. The gun is not believed to be the murder weapon.

A submachine gun and rifle were found by police in a drug raid in Wilson Borough on March 28, 2014.

Carl B. Wolff found his own carbine rifle when he went to buy a gun at a pawn shop in the 25th Street Shopping Center in Palmer Township on May 29, 2014.

A pistol and a suppressor for a machine gun were found during a drug investigation in Nazareth on Sept. 30, 2014.

A semi-automatic pistol used in a non-fatal shooting in Brooklyn was found by police Jan. 17, 2016.

A search by Easton police in Allentown turned up a revolver on an unknown date.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.