A man from Ledyard has been charged with voyeurism for allegedly filming inappropriate and invasive videos of women in Kohl’s and Target stores in Enfield.

Enfield police said that Ryan Parks, 26, of 40 Partridge Hollow Road in Gales Ferry, told them he took the videos on his cellphone “for the thrill.” 

Parks turned himself in last week and was charged with 23 counts of voyeurism. According to the state judicial website, charges against him were reduced to one felony count of voyeurism after he was arraigned in Hartford.

Police found 531 videos on Parks’ phone, a Samsung Galaxy S9 seized by police and searched with a warrant. Twenty-three of the videos were of someone walking up to women in retail or grocery stores and filming up their skirts, shorts or dresses, police said.

Other videos showed someone walking up behind women and filming them from behind. The videos were recorded between June 20 and July 28, police said.

On Aug. 2, police were called to Kohl’s in Enfield for a report that a man wearing a black shirt and red shorts was taking inappropriate photos of women in the store, before leaving and taking off in a blue Nissan Altima.

Responding officers spotted a blue Altima in a nearby McDonald’s drive-thru lane and asked the driver, who was indentified as Parks, to exit the vehicle. He was wearing a black shirt and red shorts, police said.

Parks at first tried to tell police he was coming from his girlfriend’s house, but then told officers that he knew why they stopped him and admitted to taking photos and videos of women. Parks opened the photo and video gallery on his phone and showed officers a video that appeared to be an attempt to film up a woman’s shorts, police said.

An officer determined that the video was taken inside a Target and Parks told him he had been taking photos and videos at Target before he went to Kohl’s. Additional officers arrived on scene and identified Parks as the man they had seen on surveillance video from Kohl’s.

Parks’ phone was seized but he was released, police said.

The next day, Parks went to the police station and admitted to taking photos and videos of women, police said. A search warrant was issued for his phone on Aug. 13, then a warrant for his arrest. He turned himself in to Enfield police on Oct. 13.

His bond was set at $20,000 and he is scheduled to appear in court again on Nov. 12.

This story was first reported by the Journal Inquirer.