NEW YORK (AP) — Mole people? Crocodile catchers? Mario brothers? A series of bizarre sightings of people popping in and out of New York City’s vast subterranean sewer system has the city wondering what exactly is going on, with police now probing the underground mystery.
Security cameras have recorded at least three nighttime instances where groups of people entered or exited sewer tunnels via maintenance holes on streets in Brooklyn and Queens.
In one video, taken early Friday morning in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, a group of roughly seven people were recorded popping out of a maintenance hole in the middle of an intersection, in full view of passing cars.
Some wore headlamps and carried what appeared to be shovels and other tools. One narrowly missed getting run over by a vehicle as they pulled themselves out of the ground.
In another video, a group of about seven people could be seen emerging from a maintenance hole around 2 a.m. on a quiet street in Brooklyn's Gravesend neighborhood. They made their way to a couple of parked cars and pulled out fresh clothes to change into. Police say the group entered the sewers about 11 p.m., meaning they could have been underground for three hours.
On May 5, three people dressed in waterproof hip waders and other protective gear pried open a maintenance hole cover and descended into the sewer on a street in Queens. The last person pulled the cover shut as approaching cars slowed to a stop.
Aki Jakupovic, the owner of an auto detailing shop, said his shop’s surveillance cameras recorded that group of sewer spelunkers. He said he couldn’t venture a guess as to what the people did below ground but worried they were “up to no good.”
The city Department of Environmental Protection said it inspected the sewers at both Brooklyn locations and verified the sewer infrastructure wasn’t damaged. The incident in Queens is still under investigation, the agency said.
Rob Wolejsza, the department’s spokesperson, stressed that entering the sewers is not only illegal but “extremely dangerous.”
“Sewers can contain numerous hazards, including noxious and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flooding risks, and confined spaces,” Wolejsza said in a statement. “For these reasons, members of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole, or outfall.”
Last month, a woman fell into an open maintenance hole on a busy street in midtown Manhattan and died. Utility officials said the hole cover had been dislodged by a truck.
Police, meanwhile, said they don’t believe there’s any threat to public safety after conducting a thorough sweep of the areas. There have been no reports of injuries and no arrests, and the investigation is ongoing, the department said.
On Tuesday, at the busy intersection in Williamsburg where the second group was spotted, resident Anthony Purdie said he isn’t convinced it was simple curiosity that drew the group to explore the sewers in the cover of night.
“They look like they were looking for something important, like money, or for doing some type of hurting,” he said. “Ain’t no fun and games. I mean, seven grown adults going down there? Got to be something, man.”
Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo
In this image from a surveillance video provided by AKI AUTO CARE, three people descend into a sewer on a street in New York, on May 5, 2026. (AKI AUTO CARE via AP)
In this image from a surveillance video provided by AKI AUTO CARE, one of three people descends into a sewer on a street in New York, on May 5, 2026. (AKI AUTO CARE via AP)
Ukrainian long-range drones struck an oil terminal in St. Petersburg and set it ablaze, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday, as the Russian city hosts an annual international economic forum that is a banner event for President Vladimir Putin.
The drones flew more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to hit the terminal, Zelenskyy said on social media. Clouds of black smoke rose over the city’s port after the attack. St. Petersburg is Russia’s second-largest city and is where Putin was born.
Russian authorities said only that the Ukrainian drone strike targeted the city’s infrastructure, without providing further details. The airport of St. Petersburg briefly suspended flights overnight because of the attack. Authorities also cut off mobile internet services.
With the front line changing little as swarms of drones hinder battlefield movement, both sides have sought an edge by increasingly launching long-range strikes. The war that followed Russia’s invasion of its neighbor has now stretched into its fifth year, with no end in sight.
The latest strikes are an embarrassment for Putin, weeks after he pruned back an annual Victory Day parade in Moscow due to fears of Ukrainian drone attacks.
Putin is set to speak on Friday at the economic forum in St. Petersburg that the Kremlin views as a prestige event. The gathering has for decades been Russia’s leading event for attracting foreign capital. It is sometimes called Russia’s Davos, likening it to the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland.
Major Western investors and officials have stayed away since Russia invaded Ukraine more than four years ago. Saudi Arabia is a special guest country this year and is due to send a large business delegation.
The strikes came a day after Russian forces launched a massive drone and missile attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, killing at least 22 civilians and wounding 138, as Moscow followed through with its threat of escalating its regular barrages.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Russia’s deep strikes have already taken on a “systematic” character.
Ukraine is short of American-made Patriot air defense missiles, in part because of U.S. stocks depleted by the Iran war, leaving it vulnerable to Russia's ballistic missiles.
Zelenskyy on Wednesday expressed frustration with his own government's officials, saying there is an agreement “at the highest political level” for the purchase of Patriot systems but implementation is being held up by financial, legal and technical considerations.
“The wait has taken too long,” he said on social media, demanding that officials unblock the purchase or there will be “serious personnel decisions.”
NATO chief Mark Rutte arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday for talks with officials that likely will cover air defense needs.
Ukraine’s own long-range attacks are aimed at diminishing Russia’s oil production, which is a key source of funding for Moscow, and disrupting weapon production.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted oil facilities at the port of St. Petersburg and nearby ports.
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight also hit the Kronstadt naval base, an old base for Russia’s Baltic Fleet, and a manufacturing plant involved in weapon production in Russia’s Tambov region, 600 kilometers (370 miles) from Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 354 Ukrainian drones overnight.
In the Russia-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, a Ukrainian strike hit a bus that was traveling from Moscow to Crimea, killing seven and injuring 11, according to the Kremlin-appointed head of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin.
In the Smolensk region, two firefighters were killed by a Ukrainian drone attack, according to the regional governor, Vasily Anokhin. He said two other firefighters and a local resident were injured.
Meanwhile, Russia fired 198 long-range drones at Ukraine last night, according to Ukraine’s air force, with air defenses neutralizing 189.
Authorities in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region said that over the previous 24 hours one civilian was killed and 15 more were injured, including three children, by Russian strikes.
In the southern Kherson, Russian overnight shelling and drone strikes killed an 86-year-old woman and wounded five other people, according to regional authorities.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte holds a closing press conference during the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)
Plumes of black smoke are seen over St.Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, after a Ukrainian drone attack. (AP Photo)
A plume of black smoke is seen over the port of St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, after a Ukrainian drone attack. (AP Photo)
A plumes of black smoke is seen over the port of St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, after a Ukrainian drone attack. (AP Photo)
