An Alva man has been charged in 11 burglaries that took place in Alva during September and October. Police were able to identify the suspect after a video from a break-in at the Woods County Senior Citizens Center was posted on social media. The investigation recovered a number of stolen items. Some of the items have not been linked to owners, and Alva Police are asking those who have not reported burglaries to contact them.

According to court documents, on Oct. 13 Alva Police Chief Ben Orcutt shared a video to the department’s Facebook page requesting help with identifying the person shown for questioning for a second-degree burglary. Multiple people responded by calling Woods County Dispatch and by posting messages to Facebook advising the person was Caleb Gavitt.

Alva Police Officer William Shahan was provided Gavitt’s address on 10th Street by Officer Ron Vasquez. Shahan went to that address where he spoke with Gavitt, later identified as Caleb Leal whose name had previously been Gavitt.

According to Shahan’s affidavit, Leal extended his hand to shake and stated, “I would like to make a full confession. I’m the one on the video.” Shahan asked Leal to walk with him to his patrol car. He read Leal his Miranda rights which Leal waived and agreed to speak Shahan.

Leal told Shanhan he broke into the building looking for money and was sorry and knew it was wrong. He said he used two knives to break into the door and enter. He said he was only looking for money to survive because he had lost his job.

Shahan asked Leal about the clothes he was wearing at the time of the burglary. He said they were in his room, which is a garage connected to the north side of the residence. Entry was through the roll-up door or the walk-through door on the back. There is not a door going into the residence. Leal took Shahan and Officer Kris Franta to the garage where he showed them the jacket, boots, hat and knives he had on the night of the break-in. He said one of the knives was stolen but he did not remember from where.

Shahan asked Leal if he had broken into any other buildings or houses and he said no. When asked if he had broken into any cars, Leal slumped his shoulders and said yes.

Asked to tell about the cars, Leal said he could not remember what he took from each car because he went through a lot of cars. He said he had some of the stuff in the garage and got rid of stuff he couldn’t do anything with like checks. Leal gave consent to search through his garage “room.” Shahan also spoke with Leal’s sister-in-law because she had property in the garage, and she said the officers could search.

While searching, the officers located a backpack, computer bag, two sets of headphones, two empty wallets, a flashlight, an Alva Goldbug neck gaiter, a camo face mask, one large knife with a brown case and a cactus rope hat. Leal said he didn’t know where it was all stolen from; he just knew he stole it and he was sorry. He said the computer that was with the computer bag was thrown away because he could not get into the computer.

After collecting the items, Shahan and Franta spoke with Leal more about the car break-ins. Asked if he had stolen a gun from a pickup by a park, Leal said no. When asked if they took his fingerprints, would they be on the gun that was stolen and recovered in the park, he said yes. He admitted to stealing the gun and throwing it along with items from the wallet into the creek bed and using the wallet as his own.

While they were speaking, Officer Kaleb Keplinger arrived to assist. He asked Leal about the hat he was wearing, and Leal said he took it off the dash of a car he broke into.

After finishing at the residence, Leal voluntarily went with Shahan and Keplinger to the areas where officers suspected he had broken into cars. In the area of Canyon Hills Drive and Thunderbird Road, Leal began telling about the route he took from his residence and the cars he got into. He said he left his residence on 10th Street and went down the road by Chopsticks up to the college. When he got to the area of the college he tried to get into cars but there were too many lights. So he went down Young Street where he got into cars and then went to Canyon Hills Drive and got into cars there.

After that he went back to Young Street and to North Sunset and turned left to Murray Drive. He said he tried all the cars on the streets and in driveways on North Sunset and Murray Drive and went to the Buena Vista Apartments where he went through cars in the parking lot. After leaving the apartments, he went back to Murray Drive and went up South Sunset and back to Young Street and then went home.

Shahan and Franta then took Leal to Bud Rose Park where he showed them the area where he emptied out a wallet and put a gun that had already been recovered. While at the location, the officers located items belonging to a victim of the vehicle burglary that took place next to the park.

The backpack, one wallet, the computer bag and neck gaiter were returned to the owner. On Oct. 14, the second wallet along with personal items located the park were returned to the owner and the cactus rope hat was returned to the owner.

Other items recovered are still in custody of the Alva Police Department due to the owners being unknown.

In addition to the Senior Citizens Center, the owners of items identified as burglarized include Micah Reiman, Nicole Bennett, Dedra Collings, Katrina Ringgold, Derek and Megan Hayes, Kristopher Robinson, Troy Roach, Lane Weston Haas, Blaine Tomberlin, Sandra Koehn and Derek Nusser.

On Oct. 16 in Woods County, Caleb Ryan Leal aka Caleb Ryan Gavitt, 19, of Alva, was charged with burglary in the second degree, a felony, in regard to the break-in at the senior center. This crime is punishable by imprisonment for up to seven years.

Leal has also been charged with ten felony counts of burglary in the third degree for the burglaries from vehicles. This crime is punishable by imprisonment for up to five years.