Photo courtesy WBPD Johnny Wayne Alford

A suspect is currently being held in the New Hanover County Detention Facility on $1.25 million secured bond in connection with a string of secret peeping incidents on Wrightsville Beach, said detective S.P. Appler. More charges are expected as investigators identify victims on the suspect’s video camera.

The suspect, Johnny Wayne Alford, has prior convictions on almost two dozen secret peeping charges, most of which were filed in 2001 and 2003 in New Hanover County, according to the North Carolina Department of Corrections.

He is currently being held on four charges of secret peeping, indecent exposure, resisting police, misdemeanor larceny and felony breaking and entering.

Police are saying that Alford, a 40-year-old Pender County man, is responsible for an incident on Saturday, Oct. 10, when police responded to reports that a naked man beneath a house in the 600 block of North Lumina Avenue was inappropriately touching himself in public, Appler said.

When police arrived, the man fled the scene, but left behind several items of clothing, car keys, cigarettes and the video camera, Appler said.

Using the evidence, investigators tracked the suspect to a location in the Rocky Point area, near the New Hanover County/Pender County line off of Castle Hayne Road, where they took him into custody the following day on Sunday, Oct. 11, the detective said.

Investigators believe that when Alford fled the scene on Saturday, he was able to steal some clothes from the fence of a nearby residence. He is also suspected of stealing a bicycle from a location on Henderson Street and riding it to Rocky Point, Appler said.

Police recovered the stolen bicycle.

Based on evidence recovered from the video camera, investigators might link Alford to at least nine other peeping cases in Wrightsville Beach, Appler said. The police department is also receiving phone calls from other potential victims, and more charges are pending.

Detectives are expected to tie Alford to an incident on Lagoon Drive, which occurred during the night of Saturday, Oct. 3, when an unknown man entered a residence through the window while a woman was showering.

The woman, Appler said, heard a noise and then saw the blinds moving and the nearby window closing.

Some neighbors chased a white male from the residence but the man escaped and the victim filed a report with police that night, Appler said.

Anyone with additional information may call the Wrightsville Beach Police Department at (910) 256-7945.

Investigators believe that Alford targeted college age females in the Wrightsville Beach area, Appler said. Police are currently in the process of working with the New Hanover County District Attorney’s Office to bring about proper charges.

"We’re still identifying victims and determining what those charges will be," Appler said.

Alford has a criminal history that dates back to 1986, when he was convicted of impersonating a peace officer, the department of corrections indicated.

He has a string of larceny and breaking and entering offenses in New Hanover County, the most recent of which he served about 11 months in prison. He was released in February of this year, department of corrections records show.

Alford was convicted in November of 2001 of more than a dozen charges of peeping, a misdemeanor. Lumina News reported that Alford was arrested on almost two dozen charges in December 2003 by by Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach police after a search of his home netted several pairs of stolen ladies underpants and videotapes with victims on film.