Residents and visitors at Lake Park Tower in East Cleveland woke up to a wave of vandalism overnight, finding smashed windows on nearly every vehicle parked along the front and side of the 26-story high-rise. Fifteen people were affected in total, including a Lyft driver who says the damage to her car threatens her entire livelihood. Residents say they called police immediately, but officers did not arrive for roughly four and a half hours.
Shereese Dirskell, who works as a Lyft driver and typically earns about $200 in a morning of driving, told Cleveland 19 News that her car is her job and, without it running, she has no income at all. Dirskell recently returned to Cleveland to help her daughter enroll at a local college after leaving the city six years ago, and she said the vandalism has made her question that decision. Rather than deal with an insurance claim, Dirskell said paying the roughly $300 repair cost out of pocket is simply easier.
Fellow resident Kelley Jennings said her glove compartment was broken into during the incident, though she still does not know what, if anything, was taken. Jennings, who pays the building for a parking spot, said management had previously required her to move her car from the back of the property to the front — the same area targeted by vandals. She described the experience as upsetting, frustrating, and unfair.
Where Was the Security Lake Park Tower Promises?
Dirskell said nobody was on site when she went to pick up her daughter around midnight, and that the people usually staffing the building's front desk are not actual security personnel. That claim runs against the building's own marketing: rental listings for Lake Park Tower, at 13855 Superior Road, advertise on-site security, gated parking, and a 24-hour attendant as standard amenities, according to ApartmentHomeLiving.com. Jennings' lease reportedly guarantees 24-hour security as well.
The 274-unit tower is managed by Moonbeam Leasing and Management LLC, an affiliate of Las Vegas-based Moonbeam Capital Investments, per the same listing. Building management left the premises before Cleveland 19 could ask questions on site, and the outlet said it sent email requests for comment that went unanswered. This is not the first flashpoint between tenants and management this year — in late June, Lake Park Tower residents publicly protested after going without air conditioning since late May, saying maintenance requests were ignored as temperatures climbed, according to footage reviewed for this story.
A 4.5-Hour Wait Tied to a Department in Crisis
East Cleveland police did not arrive until about four and a half hours after residents called, and officers reportedly did not perform fingerprinting for the victims. Cleveland 19 said it contacted the East Cleveland Police Department about its investigation but had not received a response as of publication.
That delay fits a pattern Hoodline has previously reported on: city officials refused to disclose official police staffing numbers in late July amid widespread claims of severe shortages, while independent media estimates put the department at as few as six active-duty patrol officers overall, or three to four per shift. The staffing crisis traces back to March 2023, when 11 current and former officers were indicted on criminal charges, leaving the department with roughly 20 active officers at the time. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office has since begun providing supplemental patrols in East Cleveland at the mayor's request to help offset the shortage.
Regional reporting suggests East Cleveland is not alone in this struggle. Cleveland-area departments have continued grappling with overtime costs and officer retention this year, a trend that has produced widespread delays in responding to non-violent property crimes, according to Police1. Underlying the staffing gap is a deeper fiscal problem: a court-appointed receiver reported in March that East Cleveland's financial books were unreliable, citing missing transaction records and unreconciled accounts that complicate budget planning for public safety, as Hoodline detailed in its report on the city's fiscal receivership.
Potential Felony Exposure for Rideshare Damage
While vehicle break-ins are often treated as routine property crime, the damage to Dirskell's car carries added legal weight because of what the vehicle represents for her income. Under Ohio Revised Code § 2909.05, knowingly damaging property that is necessary for someone to conduct their business or occupation constitutes felony vandalism regardless of the dollar value of the damage — a distinction that could elevate charges beyond simple misdemeanor criminal damaging if a suspect is identified.
The overnight vandalism arrives even as East Cleveland has seen pockets of investment elsewhere in the city. Cuyahoga County and regional development partners completed a project reopening Woodlawn Road in the city's Circle East district, part of a multi-million-dollar push to bolster housing and public safety that Hoodline covered in its story on the Woodlawn Road reopening. For residents like Jennings and Dirskell, though, the gap between what Lake Park Tower promises and what happened overnight remains unresolved, with building management still declining to address the security failures publicly.
