WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 The New York Police Department and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection are investigating groups of people entering sewers at night.<\/p>\n
Security cameras recorded at least three separate times that groups of people entered or exited sewer tunnels via maintenance holes on streets in Brooklyn and Queens at night, The Associated Press reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n A video from early Friday morning in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn showed a group of about seven people exiting a maintenance hole in the middle of an intersection as cars passed by. Some of them wore headlamps and carried what appeared to be shovels and other tools. One person barely missed getting run over by a vehicle as they pulled themselves out of the hole.<\/p>\n Another video showed a group of about seven people emerging from a maintenance hole around 2 a.m. on a street in Brooklyn\u2019s Gravesend neighborhood. The group headed to a couple of parked cars and took out fresh clothes to change into. The NYPD said<\/a> that the group entered the sewers about 11 p.m., which means that they could have been underground for three hours.<\/p>\n On May 5, three people were seen wearing waterproof hip waders and other protective gear as they pried open a maintenance hole cover and descended into the sewer on a street in Queens. The last person who entered the sewer pulled the cover shut as approaching cars slowed to a stop.<\/p>\n The Department of Environmental Protection said it inspected the sewers at the two Brooklyn locations and verified the sewer infrastructure wasn\u2019t damaged. The sewer in Queens is still being investigated, according to the agency.<\/p>\n The department\u2019s spokesperson, Rob Wolejsza, said that entering the sewers is both illegal and \u201cextremely dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSewers can contain numerous hazards, including noxious and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flooding risks, and confined spaces,\u201d Wolejsza said in a statement. \u201cFor these reasons, members of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole, or outfall.\u201d<\/p>\n