The first sewer episode happened on 5 May, at 2am. Three people, wearing hip waders and carrying flashlights, walked to a manhole cover in the middle of the road, hauled the circular cover aside, and clambered down into the darkness.That was that, until Thursday 28 May, when a group of people shifted a manhole cover and climbed into the sewer in south Brooklyn. Hours after that, a group of people lowered themselves into a sewer hole in north Brooklyn."I could tell they were up to no good," Aki Jakupovic, who witnessed the first event, told NBC New York. "They went in there, closed the cover, like, you know, they were never here."He added: "Three random guys walking around in a strange suit. Open the sewer, [and] go in like the Ninja Turtles."
He goes on to quote an email from the city's department of environmental protection:
"Sewers can contain numerous hazards, including noxious and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flooding risks, and confined spaces. For these reasons, members of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole, or outfall."
No mention of the alligators that are rumoured to live down there, you note.
Whatever these modern ninjas are up to, they are not alone down there. Gabbatt tells us:
The sociologist Terry Williams spent two decades visiting people who live in tunnels, hidden passageways and abandoned railroads, documenting their lives in the 2024 book Life Underground: Encounters with People Below the Streets of New York.
And New York isn’t the only place with a track record of people seeking refuge underground. Hundreds of people live in tunnels beneath Las Vegas, in passageways designed as storm drains to manage flash floods. Last year, Greater Good Charities, a non-profit, estimated that 1,500 people live in 600 miles of tunnels and culverts under the city.
But how many people are there living beneath London?
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