Atlanta police are on the hunt for a man who they believe is behind the back-to-back burglaries of “Ignition (Remix)” singer R. Kelly ’s two Georgia homes.
Johns Creek Police Department Captain Chris Byers tells PEOPLE that a warrant is out for the arrest of Alfonso “Doc” Walker, a musician and former associate of Kelly’s who hired movers to clean out and sell off all of Kelly’s belongings under the guise that the hit-maker was moving his operations out of Atlanta.
Kelly ’s empty home in Johns Creek was first discovered on Nov. 26 by a cleaning lady who was hired to prepare Kelly ’s main residence for his return from performances he was giving in New Orleans. Finding “most of Kelly’s things were missing” — including furniture, electronics, appliances — she quickly contacted police.
From there, Byers said police went to Kelly’s second residence in the city and found a similar scene.
Neighbors told police they had seen moving crews emptying the houses over the past few days. “They were not hiding anything,” Byers says. “Most just assumed Mr. Kelly was moving.”
Both properties had broken windows by their back doors, though it was “obvious” to police “no one had gained entry” through that method, Byers says. “They had access to the house,” he says. “No alarms went off. The broken windows on the two houses, we believe, were to just throw us off.”
Days later, Byers’ detectives caught three movers at one of Kelly’s homes — all claiming that Walker had hired them and instructed them to move and sell all of Kelly’s property. “They were selling it room by room — say, $6,000 for each room,” Byers says, adding that the moving truck the movers were using was registered in Walker’s name.
Kelly ’s camp did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, but have been in touch with police, Byers says.
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A full tally of all of Kelly’s missing items and their values has yet to be sent to police by Kelly ’s team, but a police report obtained by PEOPLE lists items such as a 79″ Sony television, two brown sofas, a black leather recliner, bronze bar stools and Kenmore Ellie appliances. Some of the sold items have been recovered and reclaimed by police, Byers says, though the purchasers have not received their money back.
Walker is out on the run, with six charges against him including two counts of burglary and two counts of theft by taking (one for each of the two houses). He also currently charged with two counts of theft by deception for the victims who bought his possessions, though Byers expects that number to increase as more of Kelly’s items are recovered.
Overall, the case is a new one for Byers. “Burglaries normally happen for a few minutes until the alarms go off,” he says. “You’ve never really heard about a week-long burglary.”
Kelly was last in the news in October, after two women came forward with allegations of physical, verbal and sexual abuse.
Source: EW
