People keep popping out of New York City sewers — and no one knows why. The guesses have run the gamut. Social media users have joked about wannabe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Super Mario brothers or “mole people” who live underground.
Some have speculated that it’s the latest influencer stunt. Meanwhile, New York Police Department detectives have appeared to suggest that it was migrants scavenging underground for supplies. While the incidents have been going on for months, the most recent occurred near Madison Square Garden August 18.
Footage, posted on TikTok, showed three men wearing black waders and headlamps climbing out of a manhole around 4:20 a.m. near the corner of West 32nd Street and Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, and running away. The NYPD confirmed to The Independent that it is aware of the incident and is investigating. No arrests have been made.
The bizarre sighting follows at least three other alarming instances of people climbing out of New York sewers this year — potentially representing a troubling trend of covert underground escapades. Several people were seen descending into a manhole in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn at 11 p.m. May 28, before emerging around 2 a.m. and fleeing in waiting vehicles.
Some of those people appeared to be holding flashlights and wearing waders, gloves and heavy-duty boots typically used in wet or hazardous environments. Footage shows the group then removed their dirty gear and loaded it into two parked cars before driving away. Another incident unfolded in a different part of Brooklyn that same morning.
Security footage captured around seven people in Williamsburg wearing headlamps, carrying shovels and other tools while entering a manhole around 1 a.m. Some of those people emerged around 3:40 a.m. and left the area in a waiting vehicle. At least four people were charged with trespassing in those incidents.
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