A 15-year-old boy was arrested Sunday and charged with breaking into three homes in Provo and attempting to break into another.

The teen was charged with three counts of residential burglary and one count of criminal trespass. Police did not release the suspect's name because he is a juvenile. A flier being circulated around the area of the break-ins alleges the suspect is a "repeat offender," though that could not be confirmed. The flier contains incorrect information, including a statement that the suspect was living in a group home for troubled youth and had broken into five homes.

Officers responded to a home near 200 North and 400 West around 11 p.m. Saturday after an adult female resident reported waking up to find someone in her bedroom, where she and her child were sleeping. The suspect ran away after she woke up, the resident told police.

At the home, officers were approached by an employee of Chrysalis, a program that provides support for juveniles and adults with mental disabilities. The employee told officers that one of the program's clients had walked away, and he believed that the client may have been the person who broke into the home.

After officers responded to a break-in at another nearby house Sunday morning, they went to an apartment and located the 15-year-old suspect. According to Argyle, the suspect told police he broke into three homes and attempted to break into another. The suspect even took the officers to each of the three homes he entered and described how he broke in, Argyle said.

Argyle said police do not believe the suspect made contact with any children inside the homes, all of whom he said were "very young."

"I don't think any of them were over 6," he said.

Rachel Doyle, a resident of the one of the homes the teen is charged with breaking into, said she found a knife by her back door and pornography on her computer. Her children were out of town at the time of the break-in, she said.

"I didn't even hear him in my house," Doyle said. "Thank God the kids were out of town for the weekend."

Chrysalis president Marc Christensen said his company's clients do not live in group homes or with Chrysalis employees. They live in their own homes, and Chrysalis staff members go to the clients' homes for shifts of about four to eight hours -- sometimes more, depending on the needs of the client -- to assist with things such as grocery shopping, money management, leisure activities and job-skill development.

Christensen emphasized that Chrysalis is not a corrections facility. The teen who was arrested will no longer be a Chrysalis client following the break-ins, he said.

"Unfortunately, people do make poor choices, and when they do, as in this case, they are held accountable to the judicial system. For instance, this young man is in the youth corrections system at this point and will not be returning to our services," Christensen said in a statement. "We apologize to the individuals who were frightened by this young man's actions and we understand the community concern. We hope the poor choices of this one young man will not be stereotyped to all individuals with cognitive disabilities."

• Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it