Five mystery divers surfaced from a Manhattan manhole before dawn and vanished in a black truck, keeping alive a strange pattern of underground trespassing that has puzzled New York police for months.
The latest sighting came around 2:10 a.m. Friday on 82nd Street and East End Avenue, where witnesses watched four men and one woman climb from a steam-filled pit and speed away, law enforcement sources said. No arrests have been made.
This Upper East Side episode lands in the wake of at least two other known sewer incursions this year. Last month, police arrested Kevin Rodriguez and Samuel Reveron after the pair were found beneath the streets near a hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been staying during the UN General Assembly. Rodriguez told authorities he had gone underground searching for gold, a claim that sewer system experts have flatly dismissed. They maintain nothing of monetary value exists in the city’s subterranean network.
Earlier this summer, a separate trio wearing overalls and headlamps emerged from below ground just one block from Madison Square Garden, at 32nd Street and Seventh Avenue. That group was not apprehended, and police have not publicly connected the three incidents.
The repeated pattern — groups equipped for exploration, operating in darkness, sometimes blocks from high-security events — has left investigators without clear answers about motive or organization. Friday’s crew appeared to know their timing, surfacing in the early morning hours when streets were nearly empty.
Rodriguez’s gold-hunting explanation, offered to police after his arrest, remains the only public statement from any of the individuals involved. Whether the latest five share that purpose, or whether any connection exists between the separate groups, police have not said.
The underground system beneath Manhattan stretches for thousands of miles, a labyrinth of steam tunnels, utility corridors and aging infrastructure that predates modern security concerns. Access points dot the streetscape, often marked by nothing more than a manhole cover and a wisp of vented steam.
With no arrests from Friday’s encounter and no named suspects, the investigation continues as police monitor the unusual spree.