diving into a Manhattan manhole<\/a> in a subterranean quest for precious metals, police and law-enforcement sources said.<\/p>\nCops nabbed Kevin Rodriguez, 26, and Samuel Reveron, 25 \u2013 both Venezuelan citizens \u2013 near their Queens homes in connection to a surreal pre-dawn Wednesday sewer escapade just steps from the Loews Regency New York on the Upper East Side.<\/p>\n
Samuel Reveron, 25, pictured in court, admitting to fishing for gold in the city\u2019s steamy depths, prosecutors said. William Farrington for The NY Post<\/p>\n
The strange shenanigans could end up shedding light on the motivations of mysterious \u201cmole people\u201d spotted popping out of sewers \u2014 as Reveron admitted to fishing for gold in the city\u2019s steamy depths, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go into the sewers to look for valuables that go into the sewer drains,\u201d he allegedly told a police officer, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n
Reveron and his accused compatriot \u2014 the jumbo-sized sewer spelunker Rodriguez \u2014 were arraigned Friday on trespass and conspiracy charges in Manhattan court. <\/p>\n
Both were granted supervised release.<\/p>\n
A federal law-enforcement source briefed on the matter said that neither suspect appeared to have had malicious intent or posed any threat to the dignitaries staying at the hotel, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in town for the UN General Assembly.<\/p>\n
Both are part of a larger pattern across the city where spelunkers search for precious metals below ground, the source said.<\/p>\n
Kevin Rodriguez, 26, (pictured) and Reveron were granted supervised release during their arraignments. William Farrington for The NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen a number of incidents over the past few months of individuals going into the sewer system to look for valuables and other scrap metal after a storm,\u201d the NYPD said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis incident fits that same criteria, but out of an abundance of caution given the UN General Assembly and the sensitivity of the location, the NYPD is conducting additional security sweeps with our federal partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez, Reveron and a third suspect were spotted around 4:35 a.m. climbing out of the underground pit on Park Avenue near East 61st Street, authorities said.<\/p>\n
The arrested pair and a third suspect emerged from an underground pit on Park Avenue near East 61st Street on the Upper East Side, cops said. WABC<\/p>\n
They fled in two vehicles that headed north on Park Avenue, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Reveron was picked up, he was driving without a license and charged separately for that offense, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He has one previous arrest for criminal mischief in Queens, authorities and sources said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Netanyahu and other dignitaries are staying at the Loews Regency New York down the block from the manhole that the crew allegedly invaded, sources said. Zuma \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n
Rodriguez has no prior arrests, police said.<\/p>\n
Both men are expected to return to court for the sewer case on Nov. 25.<\/p>\n
The bizarre incident is latest one of many involving mysterious manhole divers in recent months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year alone, the elusive \u201cmole people\u201d were spotted popping out of manholes in Middle Village, Queens, Williamsburg and Gravesend in Brooklyn \u2013 and even near Manhattan\u2019s bustling Penn Station <\/a>and Madison Square Garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u2014 Additional reporting by Zoe Hussain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The moles want gold! Two nitwit nightcrawlers \u2014 including a particularly portly \u201cmole person\u201d \u2014 were busted Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[303,75,57,9,24,63,122,124,123,35906,58],"class_list":["post-356897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-crime","tag-manhattan","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sewer","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356897","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=356897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}