Heflin, Alabama — Every Halloween season, when the sun sets in the small Alabama town of Heflin, the local students from Cleburne County High School toilet paper a few homes.

But last month, they upped their game, toilet papering just about every business in town, too.

“It’s just fun,” one teen told CBS News.

“And then you don’t get caught and it’s like, this is fantastic,” said another.

It was fantastic until they made the mistake of hitting the headquarters of the Heflin Police Department.

“It was up on the roof, the spare cars we had in the parking lot … We had to do something,” Heflin Police Chief Ross McGlaughn said.

So after the “attack” on his station last month, McGlaughn took to social media to send a message to the perpetrators.

“We think that rolling the police department was a little uncalled for, but as we enter into Halloween season, we dont want to hear any crying when we load up like we are going to serve a search warrant and go full out tactical ninja style old school rolling at your place next month,” McGlaughn wrote. “We know who you are and while you just put the play station controller down for a week, we are children of the 80s and 90s who perfected this craft years ago.”

The Heflin Police Department then got to work on an operation that was supported by officers from multiple jurisdictions, all armed to the teeth with toilet paper.

It was an unusual approach to policing, to say the least. But McGlaughn did get permission from the parents in advance. And he said he has his reasons for encouraging the kids like this.

“As long as they’re doing this, they’re not getting into trouble doing something else,” McGlaughn said. “I haven’t seen any types of drugs or alcohol involved. You know, I think they’re spending all their money on toilet paper.”

The kids have definitely taken to the prank war. 

“I just think it’s good clean fun for everyone, and it’s been great for our whole town, the police department and everybody,” one student said. 

Heflin’s toilet paper war has so tickled the town that businesses are now offering support by putting out free toilet paper. And the kids are taking care of the ensuing mess in their own unique way, by selling insurance.

“They call it the Toilet Paper Rapid Response Team,” McGlaughn said. “So if you buy their insurance and your yard gets rolled, the youth group will come clean it up for you … So you can buy protection.”

But it’s worth it, McGlaughn said, because this has been fun for everyone, including him.

“I’m just rallying everybody,” McGlaughn said as he prepared to toilet paper another home. “That way we can hit the next house. It looks beautiful from down there.” 

Some parts of Alabama will get a winter preview tonight.

The National Weather Service is expecting some of the coldest temperatures of the fall to descend on Alabama tonight, and Friday morning many will wake up to temperatures in the 30s.

The weather service said the first frost of the fall will be likely tonight for parts of north and central Alabama, which will fall into the low to mid-30s tonight.

Frost advisories could be issued later today for parts of the state.

The southern half of Alabama won’t get off easy, either, and also will face the prospect of lows in the upper 30s to low 40s.

(See the forecast temperatures for tonight at the top of this post.)

High temperatures today (Thursday) will also be on the chilly side, according to weather service forecasts.

Here are today’s expected highs:

Western Alabama will be warmer than eastern Alabama today.

Northeast Alabama will have the lowest high temperatures today, which may only make it into the low to mid-50s.

The rest of Alabama will have highs anywhere from the mid-50s in the north to the low 60s in the south.

It could also be quite windy, with wind gusts of 20-30 mph possible, according to the weather service.

Some lingering showers may be possible through the first part of the day, but drier air will be moving in starting this afternoon.

The weather service expects the clouds to slowly move out during the day today, with west Alabama getting to see some sunshine first later this afternoon (which is why it is expected to be several degrees warmer there).

East Alabama may get a peek of the sun, but clouds aren’t expected to really break up until around sunset.

Tonight is expected to be the coldest night of the week, but Halloween night will also be very chilly.

Low temperatures from Halloween night (Friday) into Saturday morning will again make it into the 30s in north and central Alabama, but the weather service thinks it may be a degree or two “warmer” than tonight is expected to be.

Frost will again be possible in many locations in north and central Alabama from Friday night into Saturday morning.

Here are the forecast low temperatures from Friday night into Saturday morning:

Warmer temperatures are expected over the weekend, and the next chance for rain could arrive on Sunday or Monday, though the weather service noted that the forecast details were still frustratingly murky at this point.