There are few sights more unsettling in a city accustomed to almost everything than a group of people quietly climbing out of a manhole in the middle of the night.
Yet that is precisely what happened repeatedly across New York in May 2026.
Security cameras captured groups of people entering the city's vast sewer network, disappearing underground for hours, and later emerging carrying lights and wearing protective clothing. In one case, several appeared to change clothes beside parked cars before leaving.
Police investigated. City officials inspected the affected sections of the sewer system.
But the obvious question remained:
What were they doing down there?
The first sighting
The mystery began in Queens.
At around 2am on 5 May 2026, three people approached a manhole in Astoria. They were reportedly wearing hip waders and carrying flashlights. Surveillance footage showed one of them opening the heavy cover while a nearby vehicle illuminated the area.
The three then descended into the sewer.
The final person replaced the cover behind them, leaving almost no indication that anyone had entered the underground network.
A local business owner, Aki Jakupovic, happened to be working nearby and saw the group. The unusual clothing and deliberate behaviour immediately caught his attention.
At the time, it looked like an isolated incident.
It wasn't.
Seven men emerge from Brooklyn
On 29 May, cameras recorded a considerably larger group entering the sewer system in Brooklyn.
At McDonald Avenue and Colin Place, approximately seven men were seen descending through a manhole late at night.
Several appeared to be wearing protective equipment, while flashlights or headlamps were used to illuminate the entrance.
Then, sometime after 2am, they came back.
One by one, the men climbed out of the same manhole.
What happened next made the episode even stranger.
Some of the men appeared to remove dirty clothing and change into fresh clothes beside parked vehicles before leaving the area.
They had apparently spent hours underground.
But why?
Another group — miles away
The same night, another group was seen entering a manhole in Williamsburg, near Heyward Street and Bedford Avenue.
Police said approximately eight people entered around 1am.
They subsequently emerged and left in a vehicle.
The two locations were separated by several miles, raising the possibility that the incidents were unrelated — or that several groups were independently exploring New York's underground infrastructure.
Either possibility is unusual.
The timing, equipment and behaviour nevertheless created the impression of something organised.
The treasure-hunter theory
One of the leading explanations offered by investigators is surprisingly mundane.
Treasure hunting.
According to law-enforcement sources, the people involved in at least some of the Brooklyn incidents may have been searching underground for valuables.
That might sound absurd until you consider what disappears into an enormous city sewer system over decades. Jewellery can be lost. Coins can enter drains. Objects can be washed into underground infrastructure. And New York has been accumulating such material for generations.
There is also historical precedent.
In 2015, police arrested three people after they were discovered emerging from a sewer in East Flatbush. They were reportedly looking for valuables.
Three more people were arrested after a similar sewer incident in Brooklyn in 2025.
So treasure hunting isn't merely an internet theory.
It has happened before.
But the explanation doesn't answer everything
The treasure-hunter theory leaves some intriguing questions.
Why operate in groups?
Why use waterproof clothing and specialist lighting?
Why enter at night?
Why spend hours underground?
And why change clothes immediately afterwards?
There is another possibility: urban exploration.
New York has an extensive community of people fascinated by abandoned infrastructure, tunnels, waterways and forgotten spaces beneath the streets.
Former urban explorers have described parts of the city's underground environment as extraordinarily unpleasant and dangerous, with cockroaches, contaminated water, confined spaces and other hazards.
For experienced explorers, however, the attraction is precisely that these are places most people never see.
That could explain the equipment. It doesn't necessarily explain the secrecy.
A city beneath the city
New York's sewer network is enormous.
The Department of Environmental Protection oversees more than 7,400 miles of sewer pipes, along with approximately 152,000 catch basins and numerous wastewater pumping stations.
It is effectively another city beneath the city.
But unlike New York above ground, this one is dark, enclosed and potentially lethal. Sewers can contain toxic gases. Water levels can rise rapidly. Surfaces may be unstable or slippery. There may be no reliable communications.
And a person who becomes trapped underground could face a serious rescue problem. City officials have therefore been emphatic that members of the public should not enter the sewer system.
The police went underground
The mystery was taken seriously enough for the NYPD's Emergency Services Unit to inspect the underground locations.
Officers searched the relevant areas to establish whether anything dangerous or suspicious had been left behind.
According to police, nothing indicating a threat to the public was discovered. No arrests had initially been made in connection with the 2026 incidents.
That is perhaps the most reassuring — and simultaneously frustrating — part of the story.
There was no secret installation. No obvious tunnel being constructed towards a bank. No evidence publicly identified of a major criminal operation.
Just people going underground. And then coming back.
The darker possibilities
Naturally, speculation has gone much further.
Some have wondered whether the groups could be searching for access points to buildings, conducting reconnaissance, stealing infrastructure or attempting some form of underground burglary.
There is currently no evidence establishing any of those theories.
The idea of a secret criminal network beneath New York makes for a compelling story, but the available evidence doesn't support it.
Likewise, there is no credible evidence that these people represent some mysterious underground community — despite the internet quickly giving them the nickname "mole people."
The reality may ultimately prove considerably less dramatic. They could simply be urban explorers. They could be scavengers. They could be treasure hunters.
Or several unrelated groups could have independently decided that New York's sewers were worth exploring.
What makes the mystery interesting
The strangest aspect isn't actually that people entered the sewers. People have been exploring New York's underground spaces for decades.
It's the concentration of incidents.
Within weeks, surveillance cameras captured apparently organised groups entering and emerging from different parts of the city's sewer network.
They were equipped. They knew what they were doing. They entered at night. And in at least one case, they apparently spent several hours underground before emerging and changing clothes.
That is enough to raise legitimate questions without inventing answers.
For now, the evidence points towards urban exploration or treasure hunting rather than anything more sinister. But until the people involved explain what they were looking for, the mystery remains.
Because somewhere beneath the streets of New York is another world — thousands of miles of tunnels, pipes and chambers that most residents will never see.
And occasionally, in the small hours of the morning, people disappear into it. Then, hours later, they climb back out. Nobody seems to know exactly what they were looking for.
The facts at a glance
5 May 2026: Three people enter a manhole in Astoria, Queens, wearing hip waders and carrying lights.
29 May: Around seven people enter a sewer in Brooklyn's Gravesend area and later emerge.
29 May: Another group enters a manhole in Williamsburg.
Equipment: Waders, lights/headlamps and what appeared to be small tools or shovels were observed.
Behaviour: One group appeared to change clothes after emerging.
Police response: NYPD investigated the locations and searched underground.
Public threat: Authorities said they found no evidence of an immediate threat.
Leading theory: Treasure hunting or urban exploration.
Confirmed motive: Still unknown.
Historical precedent: Similar sewer treasure-hunting incidents have resulted in arrests in New York before.
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