A pair of unusual caught-on-camera sightings of men emerging from Brooklyn manholes in recent weeks raised concerns in the Big Apple and sparked an NYPD probe — but sources said it doesn’t appear the weirdos are up to anything sinister.
An NYPD emergency services and New York City Department of Environmental Protection investigation conducted underground found the strange incidents appear to be people scavenging for anything of value that inadvertently made its way into the city’s sewer system, sources told The Post.
Urban scavenging for derelict valuables like coins, wallets, scrap metal or jewelry is a more common practice in other countries around the world, the sources added.
Both incidents took place in the early morning hours last Friday — when two groups of men were spotted entering and later exiting sewers in Brooklyn, one in Williamsburg and the other in Gravesend, cops said.
Although the unauthorized subterranean excursions were similar, and happened just 5 miles apart, police said it wasn’t immediately clear if the incidents were connected.
In the footage of the Gravesend incident obtained by The Flatbush Scoop, a man is seen removing a manhole cover from McDonald Avenue and stashing it on the curb between parked cars.
Moments later, someone pops out of the sewer toting a flashlight, followed by six others in a scene reminiscent of a circus clown car, the footage shows.
Some of them appear to be wearing waders and boots, and begin stripping their sewer-befouled clothing off on the sidewalk before tossing their belongings into three cars waiting nearby.
Footage captured that same night and obtained by Williamsburg 360 showed a group of men lifting a manhole cover and entering the sewer system at Hayward Street and Bedford Avenue around 1 a.m. Friday, cops said.
They were filmed exiting through he manhole around 3:40 a.m. and leaving the scene in a vehicle.