NYPD camera catches trio leaving Park Avenue sewer, then driving away

An NYPD surveillance camera recorded three people coming up from a sewer on Park Avenue early Wednesday, and police are now trying to identify them. According to police, the group drove off in two vehicles before officers got there.

Police said the first sign of trouble was a 911 call at about 4:35 a.m. from someone worried that a crime might be happening on the Upper East Side. The caller pointed to a spot on Park Avenue where it meets East 61st Street, outside No. 535. By the time officers reached the corner, the three had already gone. Officers learned that the group had come out of the sewer and then headed north on Park Avenue.

How police described the vehicles

Police said a white man in a black hoodie was driving one of the cars, a silver sedan. The second, a four-door vehicle, had a man in a black shirt and gray shorts behind the wheel.

No one is in custody, and the investigation continues, police said.

The sighting came during a week of tighter police security around the United Nations General Assembly, which has drawn world leaders and foreign delegations to the city.

Sewer and manhole incidents across the NYC area

Wednesday’s sighting follows several others in recent months in which people went into or came out of sewers and manholes around the New York area. Those earlier cases included spots near Penn Station, in Queens and Brooklyn, and on Long Island. Police said that in some of them, the people involved told officers they had gone underground looking for valuables.

City officials have cautioned people to stay out of the system. The Department of Environmental Protection has said in the past that going down into the sewers without permission is against the law and can be hazardous.