New York City’s police department (NYPD) says it is investigating a recent video of three people emerging from a manhole in the latest such episode to cause mystery.
Posted to TikTok on Friday, the video showed three people – one after the other – climbing out of a manhole at 4.19am on 18 August wearing headlamps and black overalls near Madison Square Garden.
“The NYPD is aware of the incident and is actively investigating,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement on Monday. “There are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing.”
The investigation into the video comes about three months after an initial NYPD announcement regarding a search into multiple social media videos in May showing people climbing out of sewer systems across the city, all in the middle of the night and in similar attire.
In a previous statement to NBC News, the agency said: “The NYPD, to make sure there was not a threat to the public, sent their highly trained Emergency Services Unit officers into the sewer system to make sure nothing nefarious had been left behind by the individuals – nothing was found.”
That statement added: “And the city Environmental Protection Department, which manages the system, also went in and apparently found no damage to the sewer system equipment.”
NBC, citing a senior law enforcement official, reported that one theory investigators are considering is that those in the videos are “scouring the system for valuables that get into the sewage”.
It remains unclear whether the videos from May and the one from Friday are related, authorities said.
Regardless, Rob Wolejsza, a spokesperson for New York’s department of environmental protection, expressed concerns about the health and safety of those emerging from the manholes.
“DEP works closely with our public safety partners to help ensure the safety and security of critical infrastructure throughout New York City,” Wolejsza said in an email reported by NBC. “Entering the sewer system is both illegal and extremely dangerous.”