Three people pried open a manhole cover near 60th Street and 43rd Avenue in Woodside, Queens, Wednesday night and disappeared into the sewer system below — and as of Thursday, they still haven't been found. Police say the trio remain at large while investigators comb through surveillance footage to figure out who they are.
According to the NYPD, officers from the 108th Precinct responded after a 911 call reported trespassing in the sewer system near the Woodside intersection, as reported by amNewYork. The initial call came in around 10:22 pm Wednesday, and a witness told police the group removed a street hole cover before climbing down into the sewers. By Thursday, amNewYork reported, the three people remained at large.
NYPD's Emergency Service Unit responded to the scene but did not go down into the sewer system itself, per the same report. The city's Department of Environmental Protection was notified, and a crew from its Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations also responded. Police established a crime scene and canvassed the surrounding area for video evidence that might help identify the suspects.
A Pattern Stretching Back to May
The Woodside incident is far from an isolated event. Before the Woodside incident, people had been recorded entering and exiting sewer maintenance holes across New York City in four separate reported episodes since May, according to the New York Times, which also noted a fifth group filmed entering a manhole in Wantagh and that the city's sewer system spans roughly 7,500 miles of pipes. Reports of people entering or emerging from manholes have surfaced across all five boroughs over that stretch, as abc4.com has noted.
Just over two weeks ago, three men were seen descending through a manhole at West 141st Street near Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan's Hamilton Heights neighborhood. The New York Daily News described them as a trio of urban treasure hunters who lifted the cover off the manhole before climbing in. That same outlet reported that police have said they've seen a number of incidents in recent months of people entering sewers to search for valuables and scrap metal after storms.
Earlier cases stretch back even further. In May, about eight men were seen lifting a manhole cover and entering a sewer in Williamsburg around 1 am, while seven men were recorded emerging from another manhole in Gravesend later that same morning, the Daily News reported. On the Upper East Side, five people were seen climbing out of a manhole near East 82nd Street and East End Avenue; police said they fled in a black SUV, and CBS News New York reported no injuries or arrests resulted from that encounter.
Arrests and an Ongoing Federal Review
Not every sewer intrusion has ended without consequences. Two people were arrested after entering a manhole on East 61st Street during the United Nations General Assembly, according to ABC7 New York. In a separate case, police said two suspects, identified as Reveron and Rodriguez, entered a sewer pipe just after 1:30 am on a Wednesday and exited through a manhole roughly three hours later, per NBC New York. That same report noted three other men were seen exiting a sewer in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn around 4:30 am that Friday, and police were still searching for them.
The scope of the response has reached beyond local police. The NYPD and the U.S. Secret Service reviewed videos, license-plate-reader data and other investigative tools in an effort to identify sewer intruders, CNN reported, adding that additional suspects were still being sought in an earlier case. The BBC similarly reported that arrests of two men followed a string of incidents in which people were seen emerging from pavement manholes across the city.
Sources told CBS News New York that people involved in at least two Brooklyn cases may have been “treasure hunters” looking for valuables in the sewer system, though that characterization was attributed to sources rather than confirmed by police. In the Woodside case, authorities have not confirmed why the three people entered the sewer, and it remains unknown whether they encountered any underground hazards or whether the sewer infrastructure sustained damage. Authorities have said they do not believe the underground activity poses security risks to the public.
Investigation Continues
The investigation into Wednesday's Woodside incident remains ongoing, with no arrests announced as of the latest update. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS, or in Spanish at 888-57-PISTA.
