{"id":253080,"date":"2026-06-03T01:37:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/253080\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T01:37:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:37:23","slug":"after-mystery-men-emerge-from-nyc-manholes-officials-warn-of-extremely-dangerous-sewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/253080\/","title":{"rendered":"After mystery men emerge from NYC manholes, officials warn of \u2018extremely dangerous\u2019 sewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mystery men who are \u201cup to no good\u201d have been roaming through New York City\u2019s vast sewer system,<\/a> and city officials on Tuesday warned potential copycats of dangers they\u2019d face exploring Gotham\u2019s treacherous underground.<\/p>\n

There\u2019ve been at least three documented sewer incursions since May 5<\/a> in America\u2019s largest city, with no reported injuries so far, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEntering the sewer system is both illegal and extremely dangerous,\u201d a spokesperson for the city\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection said in a statement Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSewers can contain numerous hazards, including noxious and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flooding risks, and confined spaces. For these reasons, members of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole, or outfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New video shows a group prying open a manhole cover just before 2 a.m. May 5 in Astoria, Queens. (AKI Autocare)<\/p>\n

(AKI Autocare)<\/p>\n

Auto repair shop owner Aki Jakupovic was working at 2 a.m. May 5 in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens when he made eye contact with sewer explorers as they lowered themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew they were up to no good,\u201d Jakupovic told NBC News on Tuesday, recalling the strange encounter outside his shop. \u201cThey just looked up, look down and continued like I wasn\u2019t there. You know, I\u2019ve seen a lot of crazy stuff in New York, but this was really something.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and his staff called 911 and moved customers\u2019 cars, parked outside, into the garage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know if these guys were going to come up to me to try to start something,\u201d Jakupovic said.<\/p>\n

Responding officers told Jakupovic to do exactly what he did if he sees these men going underground again \u2014 don\u2019t engage and call police.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cop was like, \u2018Don\u2019t act like Batman, like you\u2019re not Batman, just call the cops,\u2019\u201d the night-owl mechanic said. \u201cLike, yeah, that\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019ve been at least two other New York City sewer incursions since Jakupovic\u2019s encounter, both in Brooklyn last week.<\/p>\n

Unauthorized entry into the sewers is a potential crime, though there have been no immediate arrests or evidence of a public health threat, officials said.<\/p>\n

Investigators are pursuing their leading theory that the group is \u201cscouring the system for valuables that get into the sewage,\u201d a senior law enforcement official told NBC News on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to know who they were, what they were up to,\u201d said law enforcement analyst and retired NYPD Capt. John Monaghan, also warning the sewer visitors and their potential copycats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could be electrocuted, they could be overcome, there\u2019s gas lines down there, there\u2019s electrical lines down there.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mystery men who are \u201cup to no good\u201d have been roaming through New York City\u2019s vast sewer system,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[98684,1345,98733,98732,9,24,56,63,65,64,96738],"class_list":["post-253080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-aki-jakupovic","tag-city-officials","tag-jakupovic","tag-mystery-men","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-sewer-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}