A US teenager is facing criminal charges for practising his ninja moves in a bid to become a masked crimefighter.

Todd Kapcsos, 19, says he dressed in a black hooded cloak and carried a baseball bat because he was sick of heroin dealers who gathered in a alley near his home. But he ended up being charged with loitering and disorderly conduct after police say he scared his neighbours in the Moxham section of Johnstown, Pa.





WJAC-TV STEALTH: Todd Kapcsos' ninja gear was seized by police.

"I was trying to make a difference," Kapcsco told the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat. "I wanted to put an end to the evil in Moxham. That's what the black baseball bat was for."





Kapcsos told WJAC-TV he was going through ninja training when he was busted.





"I dressed up in all black, snuck around, went through bushes," he said. "I was practising some ninja techniques - curling up into a ball, looking like a rock, just hiding in the shadows."





But Kapcsos' ninja stealth didn't save him from being noticed by neighbour Chris Trevino, who called police in alarm.





"It looked like he was trying to break into homes, not like he was trying to save the world," she said . "He was running like a ninja, not like a normal person jogging. He was going back and forth, creeping."





Police said they found a masked Kapcsos hiding next to a porch, wearing all black and carrying his black baseball bat.





With his ninja suit seized by police and facing misdemeanour charges, Kapcsos has sworn off crimefighting for now - but he's been still collecting messages of support on his Facebook page





"He's the hero Johnstown deserves, but not the one it understands right now," one man wrote. "So we will hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a rock, a watchful prowler. A running ninja."

