The wife of a Raleigh man charged in a series of recent armed robberies at or near people's homes in Wake County called 911 on Friday, saying she suspected him of the crimes.
"There's evidence all over the house," the woman says in the call. "I just can't find the damn gun."
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Walter Kevin Johnson, 28, of 6124 Braidwood Court, faces two dozen charges in connection with the crimes, which happened between Sept. 22 and Oct. 8 in Raleigh, Cary, Holly Springs and Wake Forest.
According to the 911 recording released Tuesday, Johnson's wife called authorities Friday morning, wanting to talk to someone about the string of robberies, which had been widely reported in the news along with photos of her husband captured on a security camera.
"I'm kind of terrified, because I have a newborn in the house," she said, adding that Johnson was supposed to be at work but wasn't sure if he was.
"He's been acting really weird, and I don't know if he even has a job anymore," she said.
Raleigh police arrested Johnson later that afternoon during a traffic stop near his home off Glenwood Avenue in northwest Raleigh.
He was jailed Tuesday at the Wake County Detention Center under a $3.925 million bond.
The caller in the 911 recording was not revealed during the call, and Raleigh police would neither identify the caller nor confirm if it was Johnson's wife.
A call-for-service record requested by WRAL News, however, shows the 911 call was made from Johnson's home, and his attorney, Matt Faucette, said Monday that Johnson lived with his wife and their 6-week-old son.
Investigators haven't commented on a possible motive for the crimes.
In talking about his client Monday, however, Faucette said that Johnson ran a Web design firm and had not been paid for his services. In an interview with WRAL News on Saturday, Johnson's wife said the family was having financial problems.
Police say several of the crimes happened near Johnson's home, including one less than 2 miles away on Pleasant Valley Road on Sept. 22. (Get details of the crimes in the map below.)
In that case, investigators say, a man armed with a handgun assaulted another man and stole a woman's purse as they walked from their car.
Less than 24 hours later, a woman parking her car at an apartment complex off Duraleigh Road – about 3 miles from Johnson's home – was forced into her car and made to drive to an ATM to withdraw cash. She was dropped off, and her car was later found abandoned near her home.
In one of the latest cases, a Cary woman said she awoke in the middle of the night to an armed man in her bedroom who made her write down her family's banking information and then told her that he would hurt her children if she did not drop off $45,000 for him the following day.
Raleigh Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown said Monday that the detectives are continuing their work on the case.
"(We're) making sure that any other stones – not just stones but pebbles, at this point – are overturned as well," she said. "We're looking to follow up on any great or small lead to see if there could be any accomplices, to determine what the motive is and the list just goes on. The investigation is not over simply because an arrest has been made."
View Wake County robbery spree in a larger map