FRIDLEY, Minn. — Eleven individuals were arrested Monday evening in Fridley after police found they had been trespassing inside the city's sewer system.
The suspects, ranging in age between 18 and 35, were each charged Tuesday with trespassing on critical public service facilities.
According to police reports filed by multiple responding officers, authorities were first made aware of the situation around 7 p.m. after a 911 caller reported seeing at least four people climb into a manhole and replace the cover on the 4500 block of Main Street Northeast.
Later, while monitoring the manhole cover, an officer said they saw three more people who exited the manhole. The officer's report said they pursued the three suspects and subsequently placed them under arrest. Officers said they believed there were still more people in the system, so they continued to monitor the manhole cover.
The report says, a short time later, officers located three more people they believed to have been involved with the group, walking across the 44th Avenue Bridge. Those three individuals, in addition to five others, were determined to be part of the same group and eventually placed under arrest.
The 11 suspects were then taken to the Fridley Police Department, according to an officer's report. Police later learned two of the suspects had mental or physical health issues; both were released to their families and charged via formal complaint.
During questioning, one of the suspects told police they had "walked through the sewer pipe all the way to the Mississippi River," which would have been located under the BNSF rail yard and toward Minneapolis Water Works, both considered to be critical infrastructure.
Another suspect allegedly told police some of them consider themselves "urban explorers," and were known to visit urban caves and tunnels.
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