E-scooter company cleans out warehouse of thousands of scooters after city cites dangerous fire hazard

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - A dangerous fire hazard has now been cleaned up.

19 Investigates has been tracking this over the last two weeks, after thousands and thousands of e-scooters and lithium-ion batteries were found dumped in a warehouse just two miles from Cleveland city hall.

That warehouse is now empty, according to the city.

We watched as crews worked to move the 8,000 damaged and broken e-scooters off the property after the city gave the company a deadline of this Friday to clean up and move out.

Photos we got a hold of from the city show “before” and “after” of the warehouse at E. 42nd St. and Lakeside Ave.

It used to be crammed with e-scooters and lithium-ion batteries.

The city says many of them were dumped from out of town and out of state.

The mayor’s office shut it down, taking Skinny Labs, the owner of Spin e-scooters to court.

City officials called out the dangers of storing lithium-ion batteries without a permit or license.

These re-chargeable batteries and devices can spark deadly fires if they’re not handled properly.

We learned the city of Cleveland first sent a “cease and desist” to Skinny Labs back in March.

But five months later, nothing changed. So the city filed a lawsuit in August seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent a possible fire emergency.

Under the agreement, all e-scooters and batteries must be removed within 30 days.

The warehouse is now completely empty of e-scooters and the boxes of lithium-ion batteries we saw out there.

We reached out to Spin and have not heard back.

We’ll continue to watch what happens next in court.

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