“A Doo Doo Water and a Few Needles”: Inside the Secret of New York City’s Manhole Hikers

In recent days, An imaginative question that caught my attention New Yorkers and Local newspapers: Who goes in and out of manholes around the city, and what do they do in the sewer system?

on May 5Security footage showed three people wearing hip waders entering a manhole in Queens. Then, in the early morning hours of May 29Another camera captured a group of people emerging from a manhole in Brooklyn. On the same day, A various The group was seen emerging from another manhole in Brooklyn, miles away from the first location. Some wore HeadlightsSome of them were carrying what appeared to be so shovels and Torches.

New York Police Department He has forecast That men are scavengers looking for jewelry, weapons, or other valuables. But no one knows for sure, so WIRED consulted with several urban exploration creators active in New York City. On platforms like Tik TokYouTube and Instagram, “urbex” creators — typically teens or young adults who film together in small groups — explore abandoned or inaccessible places such as defunct factories, crumbling 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 bandits as their own.

There’s nothing of value in there besides “doo-doo water and some needles,” says one creator. “And the sewers are pretty risky, because there’s basically no cell service there.” (Because this type of exploration is illegal, the creators spoke on the condition of anonymity.)

“No one does sanitation,” said another builder when WIRED asked if manhole men could be part of the urbex community. “It’s an old system and people don’t know much about it.” The men in the videos “were very sophisticated about it,” the video creator says, pointing to the fact that some of them Change clothes After they appear.

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

In 2010, The New York Times went to Guided tour New York City underground, including parts of the sewer system that have entry points at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx and Kissena Park in Queens. The article included descriptions of “condoms and sticky scraps of toilet paper” floating in “coffee-colored darkness,” but no fancy graffiti.

Another creator says the reason for entering the manhole may be the possibility of being found Abandoned Cart tracks. They claim to know of “a couple of people who entered sewer manholes just for the thrill of exploration,” but add that that was “a long time ago,” and that “no one in today’s Urbex scene actually knows which manholes to open to access the trolley lines.”

“Having multiple people going into different sewers all over New York City seems suspicious to me,” the creator says. “This may be more than just exploration.”

Both the NYPD and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the sewer system, told WIRED they investigated the sewer system locations shown in the surveillance footage and said the situation does not pose a threat to public safety. (The DEP also stressed that such activity is “illegal and extremely dangerous.”)

WIRED was unable to locate any recent content from Urbex showcasing New York City’s sewer systems. The most popular type of content shows subway tunnels, abandoned subway stations and private rooftops of Manhattan skyscrapers.