More people are prying open manhole covers and slipping under the streets of Manhattan in a mysterious but growing trend across the city as trespassers have been spotted in at least a half dozen incidents across the city.
Two of these new so-called “mole people” incidents involve the Upper East Side and Hamilton Heights, in particular. According to the NYPD, somebody who reportedly witnessed the latter instance described five people—four men and one woman—emerging from a manhole on East 82nd Street not long after 2 a.m. on Oct. 9.
The spelunkers on the East Side reportedly hopped in a truck after emerging and headed east. No arrests have yet been made, and an investigation remains ongoing. The NYPD responded to the incident alongside the Department of Environmental Protection, and reportedly recovered multiple shovels and other tools from underground.
Two days later on October 10, cops said that three men were reportedly spotted heading into a manhole on West 141 Street, at the intersection of Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway shortly before 1 a.m. Arriving officers could not locate the men by the time they arrived, ABC7 reported. The FDNY responded ound 1:30 and listed the report of men entering the sewer system as “unfounded.”
As of yet, it is entirely unclear to police what motivated the recent incidents
It is a crime to wander the sewers underneath the city without permission, as evidenced by arrests made in another incident that occurred in Kips Bay last month, when six people entered a manhole on Park Avenue near East 61st Street.
Two men were later taken into custody in connection with the Sept. 23 incident: Kevin Rodriguez and Samuel Reveron, both Queens residents who were hit with misdemeanor charges of trespassing and conspiracy. They were released on their own recognizance and are due back in court on November 25.
The remaining four “mole people” involved in that incident have yet to be arrested or charged with a crime. The two arrested told cops they were searching for lost valuables and jewelry.
That incident briefly drew heavier than usual scrutiny from law enforcement since it happened while the United Nations General Assembly was underway. The manhole they entered was located across from a hotel that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu often stays in while in town.
The NYPD soon clarified that the men entering the manhole had no particular interest in the United Nations or world events more broadly, and instead appeared to be searching for rings, and other precious items including “scrap metal.”
In fact, police added, most such spelunking incidents apparently occur for this exact reason—with Rodriguez and Reveron reportedly telling detectives that they had timed their trip after a storm, hoping that it would churn up some good finds.
“They’re just two hard-luck guys that were driven by desperation to go into grime and rat-infested sewers looking for jewelry and other valuables,” a lawyer for Rodriguez and Reveron told the New York Times.
In another high-profile incident from this summer, five men were caught on video emerging from a manhole near Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, wearing black overalls and headlamps on Aug. 18 around 4:18 a.m. A stunned bystander filming the spelunkers was heard exclaiming “they really do this s*it,” while the men briskly jogged in different directions after re-emerging onto the street.
Other sewer-diving incidents have occurred in Brooklyn and Queens, as well as on Long Island.