Around 4:19 a.m. on a quiet Manhattan block in New York, a manhole cover suddenly shifted, and a few men climbed out onto the empty street. One of them sat on the edge for a moment, adjusted his gear, and then walked away down the sidewalk as if he had simply finished a late-night shift.
The roughly 29-second clip was originally posted on Instagram by user Ricardy Fabre and then on X by @ViralNewsNYC. It captures the whole sequence wherein men are seen wearing dark suspenders, dark pants, a cap, and gloves. A black SUV is parked nearby throughout the video.
In the video, at least three men came out of the manhole one after another. The first two climbed out, stepped onto the sidewalk and quickly ran away, with their headlamps still turned on. The third man then emerged and sat on the edge of the manhole for a moment, appearing to cover the opening. He then walked in the opposite direction, almost as if he had gotten confused, before turning around and following the same direction as the other two.
Beyond that, there is not much to explain who they are or why they were underground. The video does not identify their employer, utility company, or agency, and there is no indication of what they were doing below the street at that hour.
The footage has also been linked online to a string of similar sightings in New York that have led people to start calling the individuals involved “the manhole people.” Earlier reports described groups of men, sometimes close to 10 people, coming out of manholes in Brooklyn while carrying tools and spending long periods underground before resurfacing.
This appears to be one of the first reported sightings specifically in Manhattan, bringing the same curiosity and suspicion that surrounded the earlier Brooklyn videos.
Internet Reacts to New York Manhole Video
The video quickly sparked jokes and theories in the comments. “He exited that manhole like ninja turtle,” one person wrote, while another came up with a sarcastic political explanation, saying, “Probably a scout from City Hall looking to create rent stabilized apartments down there.”
Other commenters questioned how closely the underground areas are monitored. “Where are the Flock cameras when you need them?” one person asked. Another raised a more serious concern, writing, “Crazy, people could just put explosives and blow up a business or building! The manholes should all be locked.”
A few people even suggested exploring the tunnels themselves. “Why does no one bother to go down there and just scope it out? Take some protection with you, couple of friends, some flashlights and go sightseeing,” one commenter wrote.
New York’s huge network of tunnels, utility corridors and old subway infrastructure has long been a source of urban legends and curiosity. Now, with another unexplained manhole video appearing in Manhattan after the earlier Brooklyn sightings, people are once again wondering who is down there and what exactly they are doing.
