Five people seen emerging from Manhattan sewer manhole

New York police are investigating after five people were seen leaving the sewer system on the Upper East Side. The group emerged early on October 9 and drove away in a black SUV.

The group came out of a manhole on East 82nd Street at about 2:10 a.m. The vehicle then headed towards East End Avenue. Police responded alongside the city's Department of Environmental Protection.

ABC News reported the recovery of two shovels and two other tools. NBC New York independently reported, citing investigators, that tools had been found at the scene, without specifying which ones.

Two Queens residents were arrested in an earlier similar incident and charged with trespass and conspiracy. They told detectives they had been searching for valuables washed into storm drains and sewers. That was a separate episode, and details about those suspects do not establish the identities of the people seen on October 9.