{"id":328792,"date":"2026-08-24T22:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T22:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/328792\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T22:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T22:46:13","slug":"nyc-authorities-have-yet-to-nab-mole-people-in-manhole-next-to-penn-station-last-week-reconnaissance-9-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/328792\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC authorities have yet to nab ‘mole people’ in manhole next to Penn Station last week: ‘Reconnaissance, 9\/11’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NYPD on Monday said no busts have yet been made involving the \u201cmole people\u2019\u2019 who climbed from a manhole<\/a> just feet from the main entrance to Penn Station last week \u2014 terrifying the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just immediately thought, reconnaissance, 9\/11,\u201d said an Arizona tourist named Mark to The Post in packed Herald Square in Manhattan. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re an Iranian soldier, you need to cripple New York City? Under Penn Station? Under Madison Square Garden? Aren\u2019t all the train lines crisscrossing here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMole people\u201d emerge from a manhole just feet from Penn Station last week. ricardyfabre\/TikTok<\/p>\n

A trio of underground scofflaws was caught on video around 4:20 a.m. Aug. 18 wearing headlamps and overalls and pulling themselves out of a sanitation and drainage manhole about 150 feet from Penn Station \u2014 just a block from Madison Square Garden \u2014 then hurriedly walking away.<\/p>\n

A worker with nearby Penn 2 developer Vornado Realty Trust said he was aware that cops had been snooping around the tourist- and business-choked area collecting potential surveillance footage of the creepy nightcrawlers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more they told me about it, the more I wanted to get transferred to another area,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n

The disturbing incident was eerily similar to two \u201cmole people\u201d sightings in Brooklyn earlier in the year,<\/a> which led to a handful of arrests involving people who cops believe were hunting for valuables.<\/p>\n

One of the unidentified men is caught on video wearing a headlamp and overalls. ricardyfabre\/TikTok<\/p>\n

Police have collected surveillance footage that possibly captured the latest incident to try to ID the three people using facial recognition technology and track them down to figure out what they were up to, law-enforcement sources said.<\/p>\n

Cops only became aware of the incident Sunday after other video of the \u201cmole people\u201d went viral on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NYPD is aware of the incident and is actively investigating,\u201d the Police Department said in a statement to The Post on Monday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing.The incident occurred on August 18, 2026 at 0419 hours at the southeast corner of West 31st Street and 7th Avenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the manhole cover where three men emerged Aug. 18. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

A law-enforcement source said, \u201cThere is nothing to indicate there is any criminal activity here besides trespassing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe manhole covers lead to the sewer system. But who knows what someone is doing down there if they are looking to cause [trouble].\u201d<\/p>\n

Another source called the situation \u201cnot uncommon.<\/p>\n

\u201cMostly people who do this think there\u2019s treasure. Precious metals. Lost property. <\/p>\n

\u201cYes, [the sewer-hunting is] not ideal from a security standpoint. But it\u2019s [the city Department of Environmental Protection\u2019s] infrastructure to secure,\u201d the source added.<\/p>\n

Seven people were spotted emerging from a manhole in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on May 29. Courtesy of Williamsburg 365 News<\/p>\n

A rep for the DEP, which has domain over the thousands of miles of sewers and drainage system under the Big Apple, was asked Monday by The Post about the incident but only referred to its statement Sunday, saying an inspection of the sewers revealed no damage to the infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cMembers of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole or outfall,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Law-enforcement sources said the latest \u201cmole people\u201d pop-up could be similar to the Brooklyn ones.<\/p>\n

NYPD cops investigate a Brooklyn manhole where several people crawled out of May 29. David Burns\/@FD4D for NY Post<\/p>\n

In those cases, several people were caught on camera disappearing and jumping out of manholes in Williamsburg and Gravesend in separate incidents in May, sparking an NYPD probe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At least four people were charged with trespassing in those incidents, with law-enforcement sources telling The Post they were looking for valuables.<\/p>\n

Other sources suggested the Manhattan incident might be part of a scheme for TikTok footage, given it was caught on film so early in the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be anything,\u201d said Ari, a fashion worker in the Manhattan neighborhood. \u201cKind of sketchy the way they\u2019re running away after they come out of the hole.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NYPD on Monday said no busts have yet been made involving the \u201cmole people\u2019\u2019 who climbed from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4663,57,9,24,55,54,56,103,7968,35906,4732,54647,58],"class_list":["post-328792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-department-of-environmental-protection","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-nypd","tag-penn-station","tag-sewer","tag-trespassing","tag-tunnels","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328792","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=328792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}