LIMESTONE — Limestone’s count of unsolved crimes took a plunge Christmas Day when a German shepherd named Neko led authorities from a Limestone business freshly hit by vandals to a nearby home.

There, authorities questioned one suspect who implicated one more. When the second suspect was questioned, he implicated the third.

Nearly a dozen charges are expected to result in connection with five incidents that occurred during four nights in November and December. Not all of the summons were issued as of late Tuesday. Some had been forwarded to state parole and probation case workers.

“That’s my Christmas present from Santa,” said Limestone Police Chief Ronald Sprague, who, given the outcome, didn’t mind being called out on Christmas Day.

He did say that all of the suspects are males and that one of them, a local 19-year-old, is believed to have been involved in all five of the cases. Two others, both 18, are believed to have been involved in four of the incidents, but not at the same times.

Sprague said the incidents remained under investigation Tuesday and that he could not immediately release the names of the three suspects until later this week.

Sprague said the suspects offered to cooperate with the police if police let them remain free for the holidays.

“They all talked,” Sprague said.

The first incident took place on Nov. 16 on School Street and involved two of the suspects, who police said threw rocks at two windows, breaking both. Damage was estimated at $180.

On Nov. 20, two of the vandals threw pumpkins through windows at a potato storage building on Long Road and the town’s Scout Hall, resulting in between $75 and $100 in damage to both buildings.

Vandals struck Limestone Community School on Dec. 23, Sprague said, damaging ceiling tiles in the indoor swimming pool area to the tune of roughly $1,000, and stealing about $80 in cash from a cash box in a drawer of the agriculture teacher’s desk.

Authorities believe the 19-year-old acted alone in that incident.

The break in the cases came on Christmas Day, shortly after two suspects broke into the Bangor Roofing and Sheet Metal Co.’s property in Limestone’s industrial park.

Sprague and Limestone police officer Theresa Howard called in State Police Trooper Tammy Doyle and her K-9 tracking dog, who tracked scents from the company’s building to the nearby home of one of the suspects, which led the police to the two others.

About $100 in damage to a door and a window occurred while the two were attempting to gain entry to the building, Sprague said. Nothing was reported missing.

The actions are expected to generate the following 11 charges: two charges of burglary, one charge of theft, and four criminal mischief charges for the 19-year-old; three criminal mischief charges for one 18-year-old; and one charge of burglary for the other 18-year-old.

More charges may be added as the investigation continues, Sprague said.

A single unsolved crime remains on the Limestone Police Department’s logs and there’s a chance that it, too, might be put to rest by the end of the investigation. That crime involved the use of a pumpkin in the breaking of a window at a Main Street business.