Suspects seen exiting Manhattan manhole, sparking security sweep, were hunting for valuables, NYPD says
Published in News & Features
NEW YORK — Cops have arrested two of the three men spotted popping out of a manhole onto an Upper East Side street, the latest in an alarming trend in which low-rent treasure hunters have been seen scouring the sewers for valuables, police said Friday.
The suspects — Kevin Rodriguez, 26, and Samuel Reveron, 25 — sparked an underground security sweep by the NYPD Wednesday because the manhole, at Park Avenue and East 61st Street, is across the street from the hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu usually stays.
Netanyahu, who spoke at the U.N. Thursday, had not yet arrived in the city when the black-clad suspects were seen on video about 4:35 a.m. Wednesday, climbing out of the manhole, then escaping north in two vehicles.
Police do not believe the trespassers were planning anything against Netanyahu or the U.N. General Assembly — they likely urban explorers or migrants searching the sewer system for valuables, an NYPD spokesman said.
“We have seen a number of incidents over the past few months of individuals going into the sewer system to look for valuables and other scrap metal after a storm,” the NYPD said in a statement.
Police believe the trio went underground a short time earlier through a subway access gate at East 63rd Street and Fifth Avenue. Cops tracked down and arrested the two suspects on Thursday.
The underground trespassing is the latest in a string of similar incidents, including a May 28 intrusion through a Brooklyn manhole that led to two arrests.
Rodriguez, of Flushing, and Reveron, of Elmhurst, were charged with trespass and conspiracy.
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