A four-hour, middle-of-the-night search of a neighborhood resulted in the arrest of three teens suspected of damaging more than 20 mailboxes on Westwood Drive. 

The story:

A witness reported seeing three males damaging a couple of mailboxes on Westwood Drive about 2:30 a.m. July 23.

When police arrived, they found a total of 22 mailboxes knocked down, bent or otherwised damaged.

Officers searched the neighborhood on foot and brought in a canine officer to track the culprits.

About 5:10 a.m., an officer saw kids running at Westwood and Pearl, then found a teen lying on the ground in front of a Westwood Drive house, huffing and puffing like he had just been running.

The other two were also then apprehended. All are 18 and live in Strongsville.

Police said the three were at one teen's house on Westwood and decided to walk to Sheetz for food.

One of them kicked down a mailbox on the way, so the other two then joined in, kicking over mailboxes as they went.

They were all cited for criminal damaging and are scheduled to appear in Mayor's Court Aug. 9.