At least three recent incidents have been caught on surveillance video showing people emerging from New York City sewer manholes at night, leaving police puzzled about what the group, reminiscent of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-like figures, is doing underground.
Several people were caught on camera climbing out of a Brooklyn sewer manhole around 11 p.m. on May 28, then fleeing in waiting vehicles, prompting an NYPD investigation into the bizarre incident, a spokesperson for the force told The Independent. Some group members emerged from a manhole around 2 a.m. on McDonald Avenue in the Gravesend neighborhood, as seen in surveillance footage obtained by The Flatbush Scoop. The video shows a person removing the manhole cover before several more climbed out of the sewer system one by one.
Some of them appeared to be holding flashlights and wearing waders, gloves and heavy-duty boots commonly used in wet or hazardous environments. After reaching the surface, the group gathered near two parked cars, where they appeared to remove dirty gear and load equipment into the vehicles before driving away.
The incident came just an hour after a similar scene in another part of Brooklyn. Around 1 a.m. on May 29, security cameras captured multiple people entering a sewer manhole near Heyward Street and Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, according to News 12 Brooklyn. Some in the group were wearing headlamps and carrying shovels and other tools, The Associated Press reports. Some resurfaced around 3:40 a.m., then left the area in a waiting vehicle, the NYPD told The Independent.
No injuries were reported in either incident, and no arrests have been made as the investigation remains ongoing, the spokesperson said. Police examined the Gravesend location on May 29 and said the area was “safe and free of hazards,” according to a social media post. The NYC Department of Environmental Protection also told News 12 Brooklyn on May 29 that it did not find any damage to the sewer system at the Gravesend site.
Additionally, as AP reported June 3, surveillance video in Queens on May 5 showed three people wearing waterproof hip waders and protective gear prying open a manhole cover and climbing into the sewer system, with the last person closing the cover behind them as traffic slowed nearby. The group was captured on camera from an auto detailing shop owned by Aki Jakupovic, who said he didn’t know what they were doing underground but suspected they might be “up to no good.”
The DEP later said it inspected the Brooklyn sewer sites and found no damage to the infrastructure. However, the Queens incident remains under investigation, AP reported.
In the meantime, police do not believe there is any threat to public safety. Still, entering the sewer system is not only illegal, a DEP spokesperson told The Independent, but also “extremely dangerous.”
“Sewers can contain numerous hazards, including noxious and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flooding risks, and confined spaces,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “For these reasons, members of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole or outfall.”
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