ROCKINGHAM — A Scotland County man caught peeping into a Hamlet home earlier this year will spend the next four months behind bars.
Court records show that 64-year-old George Reynolds Tyler, of Laurinburg, was convicted Nov. 9 on a misdemeanor charge of secret peeping.
On May 14, Tyler was caught on camera walking into a yard on Third Street in Hamlet and then stepping closer to peer into a window of a home. According to a warrant, Tyler was looking into the living room.
The Hamlet Police Department posted the video clip of Tyler on its Facebook page, asking for help identifying the then-unknown suspect.
Police say Tyler was identified through tips and the Probation and Parole office in Scotland County. He was arrested and charged on May 22.
According to records, Tyler pleaded not guilty, but was found guilty in court. He was sentenced to 121 days. As of Nov. 13, he was being held in the Richmond County Jail.
Records with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction show Tyler was already on probation, having been convicted of the same charge — and given an 18-month suspended sentence — in Scotland County on December 13, 2022.
Online court records show Tyler is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 14 in Scotland County for a probation violation related to that conviction.
Tyler’s first conviction was for peeping in Richmond County in 1977, records show.
He was subsequently convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in 1978 and felony breaking and entering in 1980 and incarcerated for 10 months.
Since then, Tyler has been convicted on multiple counts of breaking and entering, larceny and possessing stolen goods, and twice of being a habitual felon and has been in and out of prison.
