Vandalism Going Strong on These Summer Nights

Picnic tables in the street. Saran Wrap stretched across the roadway. Patio furniture turned upside down. Ding dong ditching.

And the more malicious: Mailboxes knocked over. Mustard and ketchup poured on cars. Spray paint on garage doors. Rocks and eggs thrown at houses. Lamp posts broken.

It's  in the city.

Kids in Strongsville are creative in their vandalism, reports show, abandoning the traditional toilet papering of yards for things like tying and watching as cars go by.

Police have been on foot in neighborhoods in recent weeks in an effort to prevent vandalism and catch the kids in the act.

"We've been doing that for several weeks," Police Chief Charles Goss said. "We've made a lot of curfew arrests."

Goss said catching vandals in the act is "like playing Battleship -- being in the right place at the right time."

First, it's difficult to catch vandals, as well as people who break into cars, from a patrol car because the culprits can easily run through back yards to hide.

But it's also not easy to catch them on foot. He said a few weekends ago, kids were throwing rocks at traffic and at a house in the Waterford neighborhood.

"We were running a detail 1,000 feet away, but we never saw it," he said.

Police say the mischief usually tapers off after school starts and becomes much less frequent as the weather turns colder and kids no longer want to walk through the neighborhoods at night.

Officers urge residents who hear something suspicious during the night to check it out then, rather than wait till morning, and to report any unusual activity to the department.

They also suggest installing motion-activated lights to help discourage vandals from targeting your home.

Also: Know where your kids are. If you child says he or she is sleeping at a friend's house, check to make sure he's there. And be sure the parents there are supervising the kids.