A pair of sewer spelunkers busted for climbing down an Upper East Side manhole and re-emerging hours later said they were searching for gold and other valuables “washed away in storm drains and sewers,” according to criminal complaint unveiled Friday.
Kevin Rodriguez, 26, and Samuel Reveron, 25, both pleaded not guilty to trespassing charges at their arraignments Friday in Manhattan Criminal Court, where a judge released them and ordered their return Nov. 25.
They were arrested Thursday evening after police say they exited a manhole on Park Avenue, near East 61st Street. The incident raised concerns about security during the U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders, many of whom were staying on or visiting the Upper East Side. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has often stayed at the Park Regency across from the manhole.
Reveron’s attorney, Brian Kennedy, said his client’s storm drain escapades had nothing to do with the international event.
“I know that there's been a tie-in between Netanyahu's appearance in New York and guys in sewers. There's no connection,” Kennedy said, adding that his client did nothing “malicious.”
Rodriguez was released on his own recognizance. Judge Sheridan Jack-Browne ordered Reveron's supervised release because he has an unrelated criminal mischief charge pending in Queens. Kennedy said Reveron is accused of stripping car parts in the case.
The Manhattan manhole caper is the latest in a rash of sewer sightings across the city, including another in Bensonhurst early Friday morning.
A criminal complaint against Rodriguez and Reveron said they weren’t alone when they ducked underground early Wednesday morning. Surveillance footage showed a group of six people lift the manhole cover “and jump into the sewer” at the intersection of Park Avenue and 61st Street, Detective Stephen Jones recounted to prosecutors.
Jones said the same video footage showed two Toyota Corollas surrounding the manhole before the group of six opened the portal at around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. They exited at about 4 a.m. before driving the Toyotas back to Queens, according to automatic license plate readers stationed near the Queensboro Bridge, the complaint continues.
Police used the license plate data to track down the car’s owners, Reveron and Rodriguez, according to the complaint.
Jones said in the complaint that the pair copped to entering the manhole “to look for valuables that get washed away in the storm drains and sewers.”
An attorney representing Rodriguez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kennedy, the lawyer for Reveron, said the reasoning “seems plausible.”
“There's a guy with a YouTube channel that goes around New York City sidewalks, scraping between crevices in the sidewalk looking for valuables,” Kennedy said. “So these guys are taking it one step further.”
