Overview
- Surveillance videos show multiple nighttime incidents of people removing manhole covers and entering sewer tunnels in Brooklyn and Queens, including two Brooklyn incidents on Friday that were widely shared online.
- The NYPD dispatched its Emergency Services Unit and the city Department of Environmental Protection to sweep and inspect affected sewer segments and found no suspicious materials or damage to infrastructure.
- Investigators’ leading theory, based on patterns in the footage and past cases, is that the entrants may have been searching drains for lost coins, wallets, scrap metal or jewelry.
- There have been no reported injuries or arrests so far and the NYPD’s Intelligence Division says the investigation is ongoing as authorities work to identify participants and determine whether incidents are linked.
- Officials warn entering sewers is illegal and extremely dangerous because of noxious gases, flooding and confined spaces, and they point to prior arrests in 2015 and April 2025 as examples of possible criminal charges for trespassers.