Two arrested in Kay County thefts

Sheriff Steve Kelley reports that the Kay County Sheriff’s Department has taken several reports of thefts in the past several weeks occurring in the Lake Harbor addition area, near Kaw City and east of Newkirk.

Several hundreds of dollars’ worth of property was reported stolen from different residences and vehicles, Kelley said. Property damages caused during the thefts were also very high, he said.

While conducting investigations on these events, at 9:25 p.m. Saturday, March 3, Sgt. Shannon Wathor with the Kay County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to 545 Sunnybrook in the Lake Harbor Edition near 106 Lane and Ferguson in reference to a burglary that had occurred in the last week.  

The crime scene was processed and evidence was collected.  After completing the report at that scene, Sgt. Wathor was advised by other residents of multiple burglaries that had all occurred around the same time.

After collecting all the information from multiple victims, the next day Sgt. Wathor and other deputies were performing follow-up investigations on the burglaries. A juvenile suspect and an adult suspect were identified.

Sgt. Wathor interviewed the juvenile, who confessed to at least five burglaries in the area in the past couple of weeks.  Several stolen items were recovered from the juvenile, to be returned to the owners.  

Sgt. Wathor then located the adult suspect, who was arrested, transported to the Kay County Sheriff’s Office and interviewed.  The adult suspect confessed to the same burglaries and two more that were not yet reported in the area.  Sgt. Wathor was able to locate and recover more stolen items to be returned to the owners.

The juvenile male was arrested and transported to a juvenile detention center in El Reno and the adult male, Levi Herron, 18, was arrested and booked into the Kay County Jail. Both suspects have been charged with seven counts of second-degree burglary.

Sheriff Kelley said  the cases are pending further notification of victims who are not aware that their property was burglarized.

“The Kay County Sheriff’s Office is very grateful for the assistance from the citizens in the area and the outstanding work that the Deputies did during this investigation,” Kelley said.