Two of the three men spotted popping out of a manhole onto an Upper East Side street were hit with trespassing charges in Manhattan on Friday, accused of participating in an alarming trend in which low-rent treasure hunters scour the sewers for valuables.
The alleged sewer dwellers — Kevin Rodriguez, 26, and Samuel Reveron, 25 — were both arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on one count of criminal trespassing in the third degree.
The incident sparked an underground security sweep by the NYPD Wednesday because the manhole, at Park Ave. and E. 61st St., is across the street from the hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu usually stays.
Netanyahu, who spoke at the U.N. Thursday, had not yet arrived in the city when the black-clad suspects were seen on video about 4:35 a.m. Wednesday, climbing out of the manhole, then escaping north in two vehicles.
Reveron, who’s from Elmhurst, was hit with additional charges of trespassing and driving a vehicle without a valid license after he was seen driving one of the two getaway cars. He was released under supervision.
Flushing man Rodriguez was released without any terms. This was Rodriguez’s first arrest, police said. The Daily News reached out to their lawyers for comment.
Cops said Reveron was arrested in Queens on Sunday when he was seen stripping parts from a U-Haul truck in a parking lot.
Based on statements by the two men, police do not believe they were planning anything against Netanyahu or the U.N. General Assembly — they were urban explorers searching the sewer system for valuables, an NYPD spokesman said.
“We have seen a number of incidents over the past few months of individuals going into the sewer system to look for valuables and other scrap metal after a storm,” the NYPD said in a statement.
Police believe the trio went underground a short time earlier through a subway access gate at E. 63rd St. and Fifth Ave. Cops tracked down and arrested the two suspects on Thursday.
The underground trespassing is the latest in a string of similar incidents, including a May 28 intrusion through a Brooklyn manhole that led to two arrests.
With Molly Crane-Newman
