YORK, S.C. — Police said Leroy Moore Jr., 73, had been sitting in his car for 90 minutes in a handicapped space at the Lowe's store on East Liberty Street.
A passerby happened to see what appeared to be obscene pictures on a laptop in his car and called police.
"It was chilling and disturbing," said York police Lt. Rich Caddell, who talked to Moore outside the store.
Caddell said Moore didn't try to hide anything.
"He told us what he was doing. When we asked him he said he was watching little boys," Caddell said.
He had to view the pornographic images in order to make the case against Moore.
They were pictures of young boys in sex acts.
"What I watched still affects me today, and will probably affect me for a while," he said.
The officers involved were wearing body cameras, which they said captured Moore's confession, and the pornographic pictures visible on the laptop.
After Moore's arrest on Tuesday, police began trying to link him to several complaints they'd received going back to the summer. In those complaints, callers told officers they'd seen a man in a white Pontiac like Moore's, sitting in public parks, and in store parking lots looking suspicious. They now believe that man may have been Moore.
This isn't the first time Moore has been investigated for child pornography. Jerry McCurry called police in July 2010. He fixes computers as a hobby, and told Channel 9 that Moore came by and said his computer had a virus he wanted removed.
McCurry said he fixed the PC, then came across a file titled "My Girls."
"It had little girls on there with no tops on, and just in their panties," McCurry said. He told Moore to leave, and then called police.
"I told him, get off my yard, and don't ever come back," he said.
That case in 2010 happened outside city limits so it was handed to the York County Sheriff's Office.
Moore was never charged in that case, but Channel 9 has not been able to learn why as of late Wednesday.
Moore is in jail on a $10,000, and could serve 10 years if he's convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor.
The attorney general will prosecute the case, as part of the Internet crimes against children task force.
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