'Tis the Season -- For Ding Dong Ditch?

A type of summer mischief seems to have carried over into the next season in Strongsville.

Ding-dong ditching, where kids ring a doorbell or knock on a window and then flee, has been reported a number of times in recent weeks in neighborhoods all over town.

Over the last weekend:

• Kids banged on a window on Rabbit Run Drive and then fled about 12:30 a.m. Dec. 8.

• At 11:10 p.m. Dec. 8, three kids rang the doorbell of a house on Forestview Drive and took off.

• Around 2:15 a.m. on Dec. 9, someone knocked on a door on Falling Leaves and ran. The resident there said when she opened the door, she heard someone scream.

In all three cases, the residents asked police to check the neighborhood, and in all three cases, they found no one suspicious.

On Trotwood Park, a group of kids got out of hand last month. One man reported that boys rang his doorbell Nov. 20, then taunted him when he answered the door because he wasn't wearing a shirt.

On Nov. 24, residents on the same street called police about 10:30 p.m., saying they saw kids toilet papering bushes.

The teens left that house and went to another, where they taunted a man and threw garbage into his yard.

Some other recent incidents:

• A Boston Road woman heard someone pounding on her back window about 6:30 p.m. Nov. 26. She turned on her floodlights and the pounding stopped, but she drove her kids to a relative's house and called police.

• Residents on Coller Drive reported a group of teens running around the area about 8:30 p.m. Nov. 24. There was no knocking reported, but one was looking in the window of a house.

• About 20 kids descended on a house on Greenfield Place about 2 a.m. Nov. 22, ringing the doorbell and standing on a car in the driveway.

On Badger Den Lane, two teens didn't get away with their pranks.

A resident called police shortly before midnight Dec. 1 to report that someone had knocked on her window three times in the last hour.

She called back a few minutes later to say she saw two kids running across her yard and throwing large chunks of sidewalk chalk at her windows.

Officers found chalk at another nearby house and spoke with the owner, who said his 14-year-old son and his friend were out and about.

Both boys admitted to the mischief. The woman said she was fine with their parents handling punishment.