Minor League Peeper Busted At N.C. Ballpark

APRIL 13--Posing as a maintenance worker, a North Carolina man allegedly sneaked into a locker room at a minor league ballpark and hid a video camera that “secretly recorded visiting team members,” according to police.

LaDarryl Strong, 32, was collared by Zebulon Police Department officers Tuesday after he sought to flee from Five County Stadium, home to the Carolina Mudcats, the Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians.

Mudcats employees summoned cops after confronting Strong, who they discovered trespassing in the locker room at the 6500-seat ballpark.

Pictured in the above mug shot, Strong works as a "technology assistant" in the public school system in Lenoir County.

Strong was charged Wednesday with felony “secret peeping” and trespassing for the locker room incursion, which came after a Mudcats game Tuesday night against the Wilmington Blue Rocks, the Kansas City Royals’s Class A affiliate.  He was also hit with marijuana possession and drug paraphernalia raps.

Arrest warrants do not detail what was captured on Strong’s video camera. The peeping warrant alleges that he created a “photographic image of another person underneath or through that person’s clothing in order to view the person’s body or undergarments without that person’s consent.”

Concerned that Strong could have engaged in prior peeping, cops yesterday executed a search warrant at his home, where investigators seized 20 computers and an assortment of other digital equipment. According to cops, “these devices will be searched for potential evidence of further video crimes.”

Strong, who bonded out of the Wake County jail Wednesday, is scheduled for a May 2 court appearance. (3 pages)