New York City officials have a message for would-be urban explorers: the sewers are not your next adventure spot. After at least three recent incidents of people climbing into manholes and roaming the underground system, authorities are warning that the practice is "both illegal and extremely dangerous," NBC News reports.
- "Sewers can contain numerous hazards, including noxious and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flooding risks, and confined spaces," a New York City Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday. "For these reasons, members of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole, or outfall."
Video from May 5 shows a group prying open a manhole in Astoria, Queens around 2am, then disappearing below. Auto shop owner Aki Jakupovic, who watched it unfold outside his business, said he "knew they were up to no good" and immediately called 911. He says police advised him not to confront the men. He says officers told him that if he sees them again, "Don't act like Batman, like you're not Batman, just call the cops." Similar episodes were reported in Brooklyn last week.
Investigators suspect the group is "scouring the system for valuables that get into the sewage," a senior law enforcement official told NBC News, but there's no sign yet of a health threat or any injuries. The New York Post notes that there have been tales of "mole people" scavenging in the sewers as far back as the late 1880s. In 2015, a part-time Department of Environmental Protection worker was among three people arrested after an hourslong sewer expedition. " God knows what they were looking for," then-Police Commissioner William Bratton said, per the New York Times. "I know damn sure I wouldn't be crawling through the sewers of New York."
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