MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio — Mayfield Heights police are searching for a maintenance contractor that is allegedly responsible for using the keys assigned to him to break into a beauty salon suite multiple times.
Mayfield Heights Police Captain Donavin Paquette told News 5 an arrest warrant has been issued for 62-year-old Cecil Michael Lugo Jr. in connection with break-ins at the My Salon Suite on Mayfield Road. Paquette said some of the break-ins were captured on a surveillance camera set-up by former salon tenant Jenny Pace.
“The suspect in this case was trusted maintenance worker," said Paquette. “He went in on several occasions to different suites throughout the unit and took items including cash and other belongings from those employees.”
Paquette said Lugo had promised several times to turn himself in, but that still hasn't happened.
“Obviously if you have a male maintenance worker that’s going into a lot of these suites that females occupy it can be disheartening," said Paquette. "I mean you want to trust the building that you’re at. Now these females have to be in fear that it could happen to them again and worse off this guy hasn’t been picked up yet.”
Pace told News 5 at first she wasn't sure break-ins were taking place at her salon rental unit but said as time went on she started to notice more items, including some cash, went missing. Pace said she later set-up a surveillance camera and that's when she made the startling discovery.
“At first I did not ever think there was someone stealing from me, I thought I was just misplacing something, or I did not count my money that day," said Pace. “The thing that really got me was when I filled my candy jar, and it was completely filled to the top, and then the next time I came into work it was empty So that’s when I knew for sure someone was coming in.”
Pace contacted Mayfield Heights police and gave them her surveillance video, that then led to an arrest warrant.
“I caught 14 videos in four days of him coming into my room, just to steal all my stuff, to do nothing else but that," she said. “Of course the cash is the biggest thing that feels violating, but everything, I mean it’s my property. “But yes, it is violating, it’s a violating feeling, I don’t know how else to say it, it’s like someone breaking into your house.”
Pace said she contacted the owner of the salon and said management changed all the lock at the property weeks after the police started their investigation. Pace moved out of her rental suite on Feb. 1 and is now running her salon business, Jenny Rose Luxury Hair, at a new location.
Pace said she was not offered a remedy or an apology from property management after the thefts.
News 5 made several phone calls to two different phone lines, to the owner of My Salon Suite in Mayfield Heights over the past eight days for this story, but we're still waiting for a response.
Mayfield Heights police and Cuyahoga County Court records confirm Lugo has prior convictions for grand theft, theft by deception and receiving stolen property.
“It is important that businesses run background checks, a lot of the court docket information is available just by going on-line," Paquette said. "You could search the Cuyahoga County docket; you could search the municipal court dockets and you can find a lot of stuff on your own without paying for a background service."
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Cecil Michael Lugo Jr. is being asked to contact Mayfield Heights police at 440-442-2323 ext. 360, if you have a tip you don't have to give your name.
