BROOKLYN — Cowabunga!
Three men took a “Ninja Turtles”-style crawl through an East Flatbush sewer Wednesday night in search of valuables, but instead triggered a massive NYPD manhunt and came away with nothing but a court appearance, police said.
“God knows what they were looking for,” NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton quipped. “I know damn sure I wouldn’t be crawling through the sewers of New York, but these three evidently were.”
The bizarre episode began when Department of Environmental Protection trainee Marquise Evans, 21, allegedly opened a manhole on Avenue H and East 35th Street and went underground with two pals around 9:45 p.m., police said.
Evans eventually surfaced, but the pair remained in the sewer.
“He said he let two people down there who wanted to search for merchandise that may have been discarded,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.
It wasn’t until four hours later when Emergency Service Unit officers discovered Damion Nieves, 35, and David Hannibal, 45, and took them into custody, police said.
“They basically said, ‘Yeah, that’s what we were doing,’” Boyce said.
Evans, of Brooklyn, is charged with reckless endangerment, criminal trespassing, criminal facilitation, unlawful possession of marijuana and disorderly conduct, the NYPD said.
The DEP said it has suspended Evans pending further investigation.
"Entering a sewer without proper authorization and training is illegal, incredibly irresponsible and dangerous," the DEP said in a statement. "Illegally accessing any confined space with potentially hazardous materials or conditions risks the safety of trespassers as well as the first responders who are called on to rescue them."
Nieves and Hannibal, both of Brooklyn, were charged with criminal trespassing, police said.
Bratton and Boyce said they were puzzled by the men’s actions.
“It was a little cat and mouse down there,” Boyce said. “We don’t really know why they’d be doing that.”
