Beloved Small-Town Photographer Arrested for Secretly Taking Inappropriate Images
A photographer, who was celebrated as the unofficial lensman of a U.S. small-town, has been arrested for secretly taking pictures of unsuspecting passersby.
For years, William Robert Curlee was known as the unofficial photographer of Mount Airy, North Carolina — the small town that served as inspiration for the fictional community of Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show.
Curlee was even affectionally dubbed “Mayberry’s photographer” by the public for his reputation for taking stunning images of Mount Airy and the town’s events, shows, and festivals.
However, 65-year-old Curlee is now facing criminal charges over accusations that he took inappropriate images of women while documenting the town.
On October 7, 2024, Curlee was reported to cops by an unidentified woman as he was taking pictures in Mount Airy’s central business district that day.
The unidentified woman claimed that she caught Curlee using a hidden camera phone to secretly capture upskirt photos of her underwear. According to Mount Airy Police, the camera phone in question was “either in or near [Curlee’s] camera bag” and was pointed upward “so it was capturing that viewpoint.”
“According to the information we have at this point, he was taking inappropriate images,” Mount Airy Police Chief Dale Watson explains.
The police chief says the photos targeted women “who were unaware and without their consent.”
Curlee was arrested at home the next day on one count of felony secret peeping and was released later that afternoon on a $10,000 secured bond. Since that day, additional charges of secret peeping have been added.
‘Some Things You Just Don’t Expect’
According to a report by The Mount Airy News on Wednesday, there are now 14 separate cases pending for Curlee with a total of 32 charges. He is charged with 16 counts of felonious secret peeping and 16 counts of misdemeanor secret peeping.
In two of the cases, he is charged with two counts of each type which brings the total current count to 32. That number could rise should more victims come forward to Mount Airy Police. His next scheduled court appearance is March 3.
Mount Airy Police Chief Watson called the allegations against Curlee “disheartening” and told The Mount Airy News that Curlee was in essence, “Mr. Mount Airy.”
“Some things you just don’t expect,” Watson says.
According to The Independent, Curlee moved to Mount Airy in 2018 and became a cherished member of town for taking pictures of all the events, shows, festivals, and parades that took place in the town. In 2023, Curlee was even given Mount Airy’s first-ever AGORA award, for contributions to the community that went “above and beyond,” got a key to the city, and was named a “North Carolina Main Street Champion.”
Curlee’s last public photos, posted on Facebook the day before he was reported to police, showed a food truck festival in Mount Airy.
Secret peeping is charged as a misdemeanor when the perpetrator is just looking; it becomes a felony when someone “secretly or surreptitiously uses any device to create a photographic image of another person underneath or through the clothing being worn by that other person to view the body of, or the undergarments worn by, that other person without their consent.”
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
