{"id":254565,"date":"2026-06-04T00:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/254565\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T00:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:46:22","slug":"nypd-investigating-after-groups-of-people-spotted-descending-into-sewers-on-multiple-occasions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/254565\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD investigating after groups of people spotted descending into sewers on multiple occasions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Philip Marcelo
Associated Press<\/p>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Mole people? Crocodile catchers? Mario brothers? A series of bizarre sightings of people popping in and out of New York City\u2019s vast subterranean sewer system has the city wondering what exactly is going on, with police now probing the underground mystery.<\/p>\n

Security cameras have recorded at least three nighttime instances where groups of people entered or exited sewer tunnels via maintenance holes on streets in Brooklyn and Queens.<\/p>\n

| REGISTER: The hidden cost of the modern patrol shift<\/a><\/p>\n

In one video, taken early Friday morning in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, a group of roughly seven people were recorded popping out of a maintenance hole in the middle of an intersection, in full view of passing cars.<\/p>\n

Some wore headlamps and carried what appeared to be shovels and other tools. One narrowly missed getting run over by a vehicle as they pulled themselves out of the ground.<\/p>\n

In another video, a group of about seven people could be seen emerging from a maintenance hole around 2 a.m. on a quiet street in Brooklyn\u2019s Gravesend neighborhood. They made their way to a couple of parked cars and pulled out fresh clothes to change into. Police say the group entered the sewers about 11 p.m., meaning they could have been underground for three hours.<\/p>\n

On May 5, three people dressed in waterproof hip waders and other protective gear pried open a maintenance hole cover and descended into the sewer on a street in Queens. The last person pulled the cover shut as approaching cars slowed to a stop.<\/p>\n

Aki Jakupovic, the owner of an auto detailing shop, said his shop\u2019s surveillance cameras recorded that group of sewer spelunkers. He said he couldn\u2019t venture a guess as to what the people did below ground but worried they were \u201cup to no good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city Department of Environmental Protection said it inspected the sewers at both Brooklyn locations and verified the sewer infrastructure wasn\u2019t damaged. The incident in Queens is still under investigation, the agency said.<\/p>\n

Rob Wolejsza, the department\u2019s spokesperson, stressed that entering the sewers is not only illegal but \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

Last month, a woman fell into an open maintenance hole<\/a> on a busy street in midtown Manhattan and died. Utility officials said the hole cover had been dislodged by a truck.<\/p>\n

Police, meanwhile, said they don\u2019t believe there\u2019s any threat to public safety after conducting a thorough sweep of the areas. There have been no reports of injuries and no arrests, and the investigation is ongoing, the department said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, at the busy intersection in Williamsburg where the second group was spotted, resident Anthony Purdie said he isn\u2019t convinced it was simple curiosity that drew the group to explore the sewers in the cover of night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey look like they were looking for something important, like money, or for doing some type of hurting,\u201d he said. \u201cAin\u2019t no fun and games. I mean, seven grown adults going down there? Got to be something, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Surveillance footage from a Scottsdale Police station shows the woman walking in and pointing a gun at the desk attendant and a person waiting for service in the lobby\n <\/p>\n

June 02, 2026 10:33 AM<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n Video shows the 22-year-old officer punching the woman multiple times before another officer intervened and placed the woman in handcuffs\n <\/p>\n

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\"US-NEWS-NYPD-HIRING-FILEPIC-NY\"<\/p>\n

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\n NYPD\n <\/p>\n

\n Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a City Council budget hearing that the hires would bring the NYPD to 35,555 uniformed officers by the end of the calendar year\n <\/p>\n

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\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

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\n RTIC officers used city camera footage to locate the robbery suspect along with two other people implicated in the crime, leading to near-immediate arrests\n <\/p>\n

June 02, 2026 12:06 PM<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0<\/p>\n

Follow Philip Marcelo at https:\/\/x.com\/philmarcelo<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Panasonic<\/p>\n

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\n Platform simplifies in-vehicle ecosystems for specialty fleets while unlocking real-time data insights across vehicles, devices, and infrastructure\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Philip Marcelo Associated Press NEW YORK \u2014 Mole people? Crocodile catchers? Mario brothers? A series of bizarre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-254565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254565","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=254565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}