NEW YORK — The police on Thursday arrested two men who they said had emerged from a maintenance hole on the Upper East Side of Manhattan earlier this week, the latest development in a series of bizarre sightings in the New York City sewer system this summer.

The men, Kevin Rodriguez, 26, and Samuel Reveron, 25, were taken into custody in midtown Manhattan at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and charged with trespassing and conspiracy in connection with the episode, according to police.

Authorities said Rodriguez and Reveron were among a group of several people who slinked out of a maintenance hole on Wednesday morning, just blocks from where world leaders have been staying for the annual U.N. General Assembly.

According to security footage and information from police, the group emerged from the sewer system near East 61st Street and Park Avenue around 4:30 a.m., prompting confusion and a flurry of police activity in the area. After leaving the sewer, the group climbed into two vehicles and fled the area, police said.

The arrests Thursday are at least the sixth time in four months that people have been noticed spelunking in the city’s vast network of sewers.

The episode did not appear to have any connection to the General Assembly, which has brought nearly 130 heads of state to Manhattan this week, nor did it seem to be connected to any threat of terrorism, according to police. Instead, authorities said Friday, Rodriguez, Reveron and their companions had been hunting for valuables underground, a growing trend in the city in recent months.

But the strange encounter so close to a sensitive site set officials on edge, prompting police to step up security near U.N. headquarters this week, which is just over a mile south.

The reasons for the surge in sewer lurking are not entirely clear, but nearly all of the recent episodes have followed a similar trend. A group of people, often clad in dark clothes, descend into the system overnight and emerge through a maintenance hole hours later to the shock, and occasional delight, of onlookers and social media users.

Most of the incidents have been captured on camera, and many have been shared widely online, though many questions remain about the explorers’ motivations. Some onlookers have speculated that the invaders are scavenging for valuables, like copper wire, while others have suggested it could be urban exploration.

The day after the arrests, police said that a group of three people had been seen emerging from the sewer around 4:30 a.m. that Friday in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of south Brooklyn.

Officers responding to a 911 call from witnesses said the hole was closed by the time they arrived. On Friday afternoon, police had not yet made any arrests in the case.

Earlier this summer, three people were captured on camera emerging from a maintenance hole on Seventh Avenue near Pennsylvania Station hours before dawn.

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Maia Coleman
c. 2026 The New York Times Company