{"id":254464,"date":"2026-06-03T23:35:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/254464\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T23:35:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:35:42","slug":"manhole-mystery-brooklyn-sewer-divers-likely-on-the-hunt-for-stuff-youve-flushed-down-the-drain-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/254464\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhole mystery: Brooklyn sewer divers likely on the hunt for stuff you\u2019ve flushed down the drain, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"manhole\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Police sources say they believe the group seen entering New York City manholes are scavengers looking for discarded valuables flushed into the sewer system.<\/p>\n

Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the grossest New York City mysteries<\/a> in quite some time.\n<\/p>\n

A group of men observed climbing into manholes in Brooklyn<\/a> is believed to be scavengers on a down-and-dirty hunt for discarded valuables that New Yorkers flushed down the drain, police sources<\/a> said Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since May 28, a series of videos showing individuals leaving manholes on three different occasions has set the internet on fire with conspiracy theories; some fear the individuals might be terrorists, while others mused they might be alligator hunters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, police sources say there is a much simpler explanation: The sewer visitors are likely on the hunt for treasure.\n<\/p>\n

The mystery began unraveling when about seven people were spotted on McDonald Avenue and Colin Place entering and exiting a manhole at around 11 p.m. on May 28. Police sources said it\u2019s believed that they remained in the bowels of the city until the early hours of the morning. Similar incidents were reported over the preceding week.<\/p>\n

A law enforcement source told amNewYork that the NYPD\u2019s Emergency Service Unit and the Department of Environmental Protection<\/a> searched the sewers following the bizarre discovery but did not find any evidence of nefarious intent and have no safety concerns.<\/p>\n

The source also shared that police believe those involved in the sewer diving are merely searching for valuables they could potentially take, clean up, and sell for a quick profit.\n<\/p>\n

While no arrests have yet been made in the case, this is not the first time police have seen sewer divers looking for valuables.\n<\/p>\n

On April 19, 2025, a 25-year-old man, a 26-year-old man, and a 39-year-old man were all arrested at around 5 p.m. on 82nd street and 17th Avenue for doing the same thing.\n<\/p>\n

They were charged with burglary, possession of burglary tools, and criminal mischief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police sources say they believe the group seen entering New York City manholes are scavengers looking for discarded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,303,9,24,63,103,35906,99156],"class_list":["post-254464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-crime","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-sewer","tag-sewer-divers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254464","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=254464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}