Three juveniles were arrested Thursday afternoon after a criminal investigation into several homes being vandalized at new housing developments.

According to Liberty County Sheriff’s Office Detective Doug Snider, the investigation started after Dryden Enterprise employees reported they’ve had a rash of break-ins and damage to property in the last few weeks.

Snider said some of the homes vandalized were finished with potential buyers in the process of closing.

"People had been breaking in and doing some pretty serious vandalism," Snider said. "One house

in particular, there was roughly $10,000 worth of property damage done."

He added some of the homes were also being burglarized for materials

"People were going in and stealing from these houses," Snider said. "Things like refrigerators, building material, flooring material, mirrors and all kind of different things."

Snider said Detectives Chris Reed and Eric Allan investigated the vandalisms, which led to suspects.

"Essentially they identified three people who had committed the crimes of vandalizing the homes," Snider said. "They were able to obtain sufficient information and those three have been arrested and processed through the juvenile system."

Snider said they worked with LCSO drug unit detectives investigating the theft of materials.

"There have been possible perpetrators identified and a substantial amount of the property that had been stolen has been recovered," he said.

Snider said detectives and deputies were out until 2 a.m. Friday recovering much of the stolen materials and furnishings.

"We had a lot of help from our drug investigators," Snider said, noting they were not ready to release information on the suspects as the case is still under investigation.

He said the juveniles are being charged with two counts of burglary each and two counts of criminal damage to property each.