Cleveland police are asking the public to help identify a man connected to the theft of an e-bike outside an apartment complex in Tremont. The theft happened on August 17 at 2410 Scranton Road, the address of The Lincoln, a multi-family apartment development that opened in 2022.
The Cleveland Division of Police's Second District detective unit released the appeal, according to Cleveland 19 News, which first reported that an individual pictured by investigators is connected to the theft. Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to contact Detective Grabski at 216-623-2704 or [email protected]. The Second District, headquartered at 3481 Fulton Road under Commander Timothy Maffo-Judd, oversees police operations across near West Side neighborhoods including Tremont, Ohio City, Clark-Fulton, Detroit Shoreway, and Old Brooklyn, and its detective bureau routinely handles property crime investigations across that stretch of the city.
A Theft That Lands Amid a Citywide E-Bike Push
The Scranton Road theft occurred just days before the City of Cleveland and the nonprofit Bike Cleveland launched the pilot Cleveland E-Bike Rebate Program on August 24, offering point-of-sale rebates up to $1,500 to help residents buy electric bicycles. The program is funded by the George Gund Foundation and the Sustainable Cities Fund to promote sustainable transit across the city, signaling that e-bikes are becoming a bigger part of how Clevelanders get around, and, by extension, a more common target for thieves.
That timing lines up with national data. Bike Index registry data analyzed in 2025 found that electric bicycles account for roughly 12% of all stolen bicycles reported to the database, with 59% of all bike thefts occurring at residential properties like apartment complexes. A study published in January 2025 by researchers at UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara estimated that roughly 2.4 million adult bicycles valued at over $1.4 billion are stolen nationwide every year, and the same researchers noted that less than 20% of stolen bicycles are ever officially reported to police.
What Ohio Law Says About the Potential Charges
Under Ohio Revised Code Section 4511.01 and Section 4511.522, electric bicycles are classified into three tiers based on motor assistance and top speeds of up to 20 or 28 mph, and they are governed by general bicycle traffic rules rather than motor vehicle laws, provided the vehicle has fully operable pedals and an electric motor under 750 watts. That classification matters for how the theft itself could be prosecuted. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2913.02, theft of property valued under $1,000 is a first-degree misdemeanor, while theft of property valued between $1,000 and $7,500 escalates to a fifth-degree felony punishable by up to 12 months in prison. Since many e-bikes retail above the $1,000 threshold, the value of the stolen bike in this case could determine whether the suspect, once identified, faces a felony charge.
Part of a Broader Regional Pattern
The Scranton Road case adds to a string of recent two-wheeled vehicle crime stories around Greater Cleveland. Earlier this month, a Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted three men on 117 felony counts for allegedly running a multi-year theft ring targeting dirt bike and ATV sellers across the region, a scheme prosecutors say ran from 2021 to 2025 and involved at least 55 stolen vehicles. Days before that, police in Mentor-on-the-Lake announced they would begin seizing e-bikes and citing riders and parents after a wave of reckless-operation and property complaints in the Lake County suburb.
Cyclists and micromobility riders have also faced growing safety risks on Cleveland streets more broadly. A 2024 annual crash and safety report compiled by Bike Cleveland documented 603 motor vehicle collisions involving pedestrians and bicyclists across the city, up from 550 incidents recorded in 2023, a trend noted by Signal Cleveland in connection with the city's Vision Zero traffic safety initiative. For now, the man connected to the Scranton Road theft remains unidentified, and detectives are relying on the public to help put a name to the face in their photo.
