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 A spokesman for the New York City Police Department said Marquise
Evans, 21, dislodged a manhole cover on a street in Brooklyn late on
Wednesday and allowed two other men to climb inside.
Witnesses called police, and responding officers and firefighters,
outfitted in protective garb, followed the men but could not locate
the pair, the spokesman said.
About four hours later, the two men, identified as David Hannibal,
45, and Damion Nieves, 35, emerged and were taken into custody,
police said.
The men had taken metal detectors with them into the sewer in the
hopes of finding valuables flushed or dropped down toilets and drain
pipes, the spokesman said.
They came up empty-handed, police said.
New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton told reporters he
didn't know what specifically the men had hoped to find.
“I know, damn sure, I wouldn’t be crawling through the sewers of New
York, but these three evidently were," he said.
Evans, a trainee at the city Department of Environmental Protection,
which maintains the sewer system, was facing a string of charges
including reckless endangerment and criminal facilitation.
It was unclear how he intended to plead to the charges or if he had
obtained an attorney. He could not immediately be reached for
comment.
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He has been suspended from the Department of Environmental
Protection pending an investigation, the agency told the New York
Times.
Hannibal and Nieves were facing charges of criminal trespassing.
They could not immediately be reached for comment via social media
accounts.
There are more than 6,000 miles (9,500 km)of sewer pipes below New
York City's five boroughs. Over 1 billion gallons of wastewater
moves through the system each day, according to the Department of
Environmental Protection.
(Editing by Alison Williams)
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