Overview
- Security and business surveillance videos from May 5 and from May 28–29 show small groups prying up manhole covers in Queens and Brooklyn and entering or later emerging from the sewer system.
- The NYPD has opened an active investigation and deployed its Emergency Service Unit while the Department of Environmental Protection inspected the sites and reported no damage to sewer infrastructure.
- No arrests or injuries have been reported so far, and investigators say there is currently no known threat to public safety.
- Law-enforcement sources say their leading, unconfirmed theory is that the entrants were scavenging for lost or discarded valuables that could be cleaned and sold.
- Footage and witness accounts show participants wearing hip waders, headlamps and carrying tools, changing clothes at street level, and leaving in vehicles, and officials warn that entering sewers risks toxic gases, flooding, confined-space hazards and legal charges; past arrests for sewer scavenging have led to burglary and related counts.