‘Doo Doo Water and a Few Needles’: Inside the Mystery of the New York City Manhole Prowlers

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In recent days, a fantastical question has captured the attention of New Yorkers and local tabloids: Who is popping in and out of manholes across the city, and what are they doing in the sewer system?

On May 5, security footage showed three people wearing hip waders entering a manhole in Queens. Then, in the early morning hours of May 29, another camera captured a group of people exiting a manhole in Brooklyn. The same day, a different group was seen emerging from another Brooklyn manhole, miles away from the first location. Some wore headlamps, and some were carrying what appeared to be shovels and flashlights.

The New York Police Department has speculated that the men are scavengers looking for jewelery, guns, or other valuables. But no one knows for sure, so WIRED consulted with several urban exploration content creators active in New York City. On platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, “urbex” creators—typically teenage boys or young men who film together in small groups—explore abandoned or difficult-to-access spaces like defunct factories, dilapidated mansions, and underground tunnels.

The creators who spoke to WIRED say they didn’t recognize anyone from the video footage. By and large, they did not claim the alleged sewer bandits as their own.

There’s nothing of value down there besides “doo doo water and a few needles,” one creator says. “And sewers are pretty risky, because there is basically zero cell service down there.” (Because this kind of exploration is illegal, the creators spoke on the condition of anonymity.)

“Nobody does sewers,” says another creator when WIRED asked if the manhole men could be part of the urbex community. “It’s just such an old system and people don't know a lot about it.” The men in the videos “were way too sophisticated about it,” the creator says, pointing to the fact that some switched clothes after they emerged.

Another creator claimed that the city’s subway tunnels and abandoned stations are better filming locations, noting that people could capture close-up views of trains and “prestigious graffiti.”

In 2010, the New York Times went on a guided tour of subterranean New York City, including parts of the sewer system that have entrance points in the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park and Queens’s Kissena Park. The article included descriptions of “a condom and gooey scraps of toilet paper” floating in “coffee-colored murk,” but no marvelous graffiti.

Another creator says that a draw of entering a manhole may be the potential of finding abandoned trolley tracks. They claim they know “a couple people who went in sewer manholes just for the thrill of the exploration,” but added that it was a “long time ago,” and that “nobody in the urbex scene today actually knows which manholes to open to access trolley lines.”

“Multiple people going into different sewers across NYC seems fishy to me,” the creator says. “This might be more than just exploration.”

The NYPD and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the sewage system, both tell WIRED they investigated the sewage system locations shown in the surveillance footage, and said the situation doesn’t present a threat to public safety. (The DEP also stressed that such activity is “both illegal and extremely dangerous.”)

WIRED wasn’t able to locate any recent urbex content that showcased New York City’s sewer systems. The most common type of content shows subway tunnels, abandoned subway stations, and non-public rooftops on Manhattan skyscrapers.

However, some creators didn’t rule out the possibility that the manhole moles are part of the pack.

“I automatically assumed it was for content purposes,” says one.

“My mom she showed me the video and said, ‘This isn't you, right?’” they add. “I told her no, honestly never been in a sewage system—yet. She goes, ‘Oh alright, just making sure.’"

They say they do know “some people who have explored sewage systems” for content, and that the idea of exploring the sewer systems isn’t new or novel.

“We explore pretty much anything we can get into, guarded or not,” they say. “As long as the confidence is there, most people go back home with new pictures/videos and a story to tell.”