A Reader Tells Us About Being Mugged at Gunpoint Thursday Morning in Tremont

It’s hard not to notice the string of headlines in the past few months about muggings and car jackings and violent crime in Tremont. The neighborhood is no stranger to crime — we covered a particularly bad summer of car thefts back in 2008 — so residents are keenly aware of what can and does happen on the streets of one of Cleveland’s favorite communities.

But this summer has brought what’s felt like an unrelenting string of crime. One carjacking case, with possible ties to others, seemed to be cracked by Cleveland detectives recently for instance (one suspect in custody, two others identified), but there was yet another car jacking Wednesday night, which means there’s others involved and it’s not stopping yet, which isn’t to say Cleveland police don’t know exactly who and what they’re looking for.

We got a note from a reader this afternoon detailing his mugging at gun point early Thursday morning, just a few hours after the car jacking detailed in the Cleveland.com link above.

I was mugged on W.10th Street and Fairfield after leaving Southside around 2 a.m. Thursday morning. Two individuals were approaching me on the sidewalk of W. 10th, and I turned down a driveway behind a house thinking they would think I entered the house. However, they came down the driveway showed me a gun and ordered me to turn around. They put a gun to my head and told me to lay down or they would kill me. They took my phone, keys, wallet and Forest City Portage messenger bag.

The only description I have of the individuals is that they were black, slender, wearing hooded sweatshirts and approximately 6 feet tall. They were maybe late teens or early twenties.

I returned to Southside where it was locked for the evening, but employees let me return inside where I made a phone call to police. They came and I filed a report with them.

I currently work at Greenhouse Tavern, but recently lost my job 7 weeks ago at IBM where I worked in business development. I’m originally from Avon Lake, and attended St. Edward High School and Miami University. I’ve been living in the city of Cleveland for 5 years and never felt unsafe before. I’ve always been an advocate of the city and previously volunteered hours for Destination Cleveland in the visitor center. I hope to continue to be an ambassador of Cleveland as a place to live, work and visit.

I believe the Cleveland Police Department will find the suspects, but I am concerned that the detectives and Cuyahoga County Sheriffs are not utilizing all the means possible to locate and prosecute the suspects in these ongoing attacks. I would gladly authorize with Verizon and Key Bank to notify Cleveland Police with any fraudulent activity on my accounts to capture the suspects.

Sincerely,
Brandon Vulpitta   

“The second district is heavily engaged in this,” said Cleveland city councilman Joe Cimperman, whose ward includes Tremont, this afternoon in a short phone call. “I can say there’s lots of work being done that people see and lots they don’t see. Two of the people involved in this are no longer doing this and they’ll catch the other ones. This has happened before in Tremont in my last 18 years, these streaks, but it ends, and it ends with people in court and us making sure people go away for a long time.”

This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2015.