Mole men? Crocodile hunters? The Mario brothers? A series of bizarre sightings of people entering and exiting New York’s vast underground sewer system has the city wondering what exactly is going on. The police are now investigating the mystery.
The New York police are investigating the case of several videos released in recent weeks on social media, which show groups of people entering and leaving the sewer system of the city.
According to , monitoring cameras on streets in Brooklyn and Queens recorded at least three episodes nights in which groups of people entered or exited sewage tunnels through the access covers of the city’s sanitation system.
In one of the videos, captured in the early hours of Friday in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, a group of about seven people was filmed emerging from one of these lidsthe middle of an intersection, in full view of cars passing by.
Some used headlamps and carried what appeared to be shovels and other tools. One of them was almost run over by a vehicle while hoisting himself off the ground.
In another video, a group, also made up of around seven people, was seen emerging from an access hatch at around 2 am, on a quiet street in the Gravesend neighborhood, in Brooklyn. They went to two parked cars and took out clean clothes to wear.
On May 5, three people dressed in waterproof boots, pants and other protective equipment forced the access cover and went down into the sewer on a Queens street. The last person closed the lid as the approaching cars slowed down until they stopped.
Second Aki Jakupovicowner of a car beauty workshop, his establishment’s video surveillance cameras captured this group of sewer explorers.
Jakupovic says that can’t venture a guess about what those people were doing underground, but he was afraid that they were “up to something”.
The city’s Department of Environmental Protection said it inspected the sewers at the two Brooklyn sites and confirmed that the sanitation infrastructure was not damaged. The incident in Queens remains under investigation, the agency said.
Rob Wolejszadepartment spokesperson, stressed that entering the sewers is not only illegal, but also extremely dangerous. “Sewers can contain numerous hazards, including harmful and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flood risks and confined spaces.”
“For these reasons, the public should never enter a duct, drain, manhole, access box or discharge point,” Wolejsza said in a statement.
Last month, a woman fell into an open access box on a busy street in Manhattan’s Midtown area and died. Officials at the utility company stated that the lid had been moved by a truck.
However, police say they do not believe there is any security threat public, after having carried out a thorough search of the areas in question. There are no reports of injuries or arrests. The investigation continues, the department said.
On Tuesday, at the busy Williamsburg intersection where the second group was spotted, Anthony Purdiea resident of the region, said he was not convinced that it was mere curiosity that led the group to explore the sewers under cover of night.
“They seemed to be looking for something important, like money.or to do some kind of evil,” he said. “This is no joke. I mean, seven grown adults messing around down there? It has to be something, man“.
