Three men were seen climbing into a manhole on West 141st Street in Hamilton Heights shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday, but by the time police officers reached the scene, all three had vanished. Police said the men entered the manhole between Amsterdam and Broadway avenues, and it marked the first time this kind of incident has been reported in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood.
According to ABC7 New York, officers responded to the West 141st Street location after reports of the men going underground, but found no one there when they arrived. Police said they are continuing to investigate the incident and search for the suspects involved.
The Hamilton Heights sighting comes just two days after a stranger scene played out across town. On October 9, five people, including four men and one woman, were seen emerging from a manhole on East 82nd Street on the Upper East Side, the station reports. Police said the group then drove off in a black SUV, and investigators later found shovels and other tools left behind at the scene.
A Pattern Investigators Can't Yet Explain
The Upper East Side sighting was described as the latest in a string of similar occurrences happening around the city, per the New York Daily News. The city's Department of Environmental Protection, working alongside the NYPD, is investigating the incidents, the outlet notes.
Department of Environmental Protection officials believe some people are entering the sewer system in search of valuables and other scrap metal, the station's report states, with the theory being that storms can wash such items through the underground pipes. Police have separately described the pattern as part of a broader citywide trend, telling CNN that it is part of a citywide crime pattern of individuals going into the sewers in search of valuables and scrap metal.
NBC New York has reported receiving multiple reports about people entering the sewer system after a storm specifically to look for those same items, according to NBC New York. The New York Times has characterized the broader trend as persistent, noting that recent arrests were at least the sixth such incident in four months.
Arrests And Sightings Across The Boroughs
The Hamilton Heights and Upper East Side incidents follow a run of similar episodes elsewhere in the city in recent months. Two Queens men, Kevin Rodriguez, 26, and Samuel Reveron, 25, were charged with criminal trespass after allegedly emerging from a manhole near a hotel where Benjamin Netanyahu regularly stays during the United Nations General Assembly, according to CNN. The New York Times reported that six people had crouched over a small manhole near East 61st Street and Park Avenue before the two men were later arrested.
Other sightings have been reported well beyond Manhattan's East Side. Three men were spotted climbing out of the sewer system at Bay Ridge Parkway and 17th Avenue in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, early one Friday morning, Gothamist reports. In August, the NYPD said it was investigating video footage showing several people climbing out of a manhole, as reported by The Guardian.
NBC News reported on a video showing three people emerging from a Manhattan manhole near Penn Station and Madison Square Garden in August, part of a wider wave that included a May incident at McDonald and Bedford avenues in Brooklyn, where a man lifted a manhole cover around 2 a.m. to let seven men emerge and change clothes nearby. In a separate incident that same week, seven men emerged from a manhole near Heyward Street and Bedford Avenue, with at least three of them carrying shovels, according to the outlet. ABC News has reported that similar incidents have also surfaced near Penn Station, in Queens, Brooklyn and on Long Island in recent months.
For now, the identities of the three men spotted in Hamilton Heights remain unknown, and it is not clear whether they are connected to the Upper East Side group or to any of the earlier sightings elsewhere in the city. Police say the investigation and search for suspects is ongoing.
