A routine security response in New York City has intersected with high-stakes global event preparations, after local law enforcement apprehended two of three men spotted emerging from an underground sewer manhole just blocks from the hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to stay during the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The incident unfolded at approximately 4:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, when first responders were dispatched to the scene after reports of unauthorized individuals exiting the manhole. Law enforcement sources from the New York Police Department (NYPD) confirmed that all three men fled the location immediately after being spotted, but investigators were able to take 26-year-old Kevin Rodriguez and 25-year-old Samuel Reveron—both Queens residents—into custody a day later. The pair now face criminal charges of conspiracy and trespassing.
In an official statement shared with the BBC, the NYPD noted that unauthorized entries into the city’s sewer system have become an increasingly common occurrence in recent months. In most cases, people enter the underground network after major storm events to search for discarded valuables and scrap metal that gets washed into the pipes. “This incident fits that same criteria, but out of an abundance of caution given the U.N. General Assembly and the sensitivity of the location, the NYPD is conducting additional security sweeps with our federal partners,” the department’s statement read.
Court records from the pair’s initial hearing Friday morning show that both Rodriguez and Reveron entered not guilty pleas to all charges against them, and were subsequently released from custody pending future court proceedings. The third man involved in the incident remains at large as of press time.
This arrest is far from an isolated case: New York City law enforcement has documented a string of similar unauthorized sewer entries across multiple boroughs since the start of 2024. In August alone, two separate incidents were recorded: one captured a single person emerging from a Queens manhole in the early hours of the day, while another found three people dressed in work overalls and fitted with headlamps climbing out of a manhole near midtown Manhattan’s Penn Station, one of the city’s busiest transit hubs. Back in May, surveillance cameras in South Brooklyn recorded a small group moving a manhole cover to climb down into the city’s sewer network.
City officials have repeatedly warned that unauthorized entry into New York’s sewer system is both a criminal offense and an extreme safety hazard. The enclosed, confined space of sewer pipes carries constant risks of exposure to toxic fumes and sudden flash flooding that can trap and kill anyone inside. “For these reasons, members of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole, or outfall,” the city’s Department of Environmental Protection told the BBC in a prior statement. The danger of unregulated manhole activity was tragically demonstrated earlier this year, when a pedestrian woman in Midtown Manhattan died after stepping into an unsecured open manhole while exiting her vehicle.